
LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 



DQD1513S3flH 




Qass_ 
Book. 




NINE YEARS 

DEMOCRATIC RULE 



MISSISSIPPI: 



NOTES UPON THE POLITICAL HISTORY OF 
THE STATE, FROM THE BEGINNING OF 
THE YEAR 1838, TO THE PRESENT 
7 /) * TIME, ' ,3 s- * 

iy ^y if-? . 

/ These are times to be met ; not followed.— A. G. McXutt 



JACKSON, MI. 
PUBLISHED BY THOMAS PALMER. 

1847. 






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Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1847, by 
Thok&s Palmer, in the Clerk's Office of the District Court, for 
the Southern District of Mississippi. 






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PREFACE. 



- book docs not aspire to the grade of a history, and is 
therefore subject to criticism as such. It is comprised, as its 
title imports, of mere "Notes," and those, it is due to the wn- 
ter to say, were hastily thrown together to meet the weekly 
issues of "The Southron" newspaper, amid other employments 
and frequent interruptions which precluded a scientific arrange- 
ment of the subjects treated of, or even a very regular narration 
of events. It is believed, however, that facts are accurately sta 
d references to the best authorities fully and correctly 
given. 

The principal sources of information as to the political bistor> 
of the State are the published Laws and the Journals of the two 
branches of the Legislature. Very few persons have complete 
these, and those who have, or have access to them, are 
aware that an immense mass of irrelevant matter must be wa 
ded through in order to arrive at the more important facts. 
Several of the Journals contain upwards of a thousand, and 
one or two extend to about fifteen hundred pages, while most o t 
them have no indexes. Most persons, therefore, who might de- 
sire to become acquainted with their contents have not time or 
inclination for so laborious an investigation, and thus many 
things worthy of being held in remembrance {.nd "kept before 
the people" are passing quietly into oblivion. It is hoped, there- 
fore, that the "Notes," especially in their present form (for 
which, by the way, those to whom they may be acceptable are 
indebted to the publisher alone) may be found useful, at least 
as a sort of Manual, or as a General Index to the official records 
of the political events of the period of which they treat. 

) the object of the publication of the following chapters, 
in their original form, a wort! or two ma}' not be amiss here. 
character and credit'" of Mississippi seemed to be af tl e 
lowest ebb. while it was believed that there was no substantial 
or sufficient reason why they should not stand as high as those 
of any State in the Union. It was therefore thought to be 
worth while to inquire diligently into the causes, with a view to 
eradicate them, should they be found to be eradicate ; and 

- : it was surmised that the malady had become too rife for 
cessful application of trifling- remedies, and that the only- 
hope of a radical cure lay in a complete change in the system. 
it is believed that the disease has been shown not to be despe- 
rate, and the hope has been fondly indulged that its eradication 

• possibly be , mer than it wouU 



• J r *^ \ -^Xpreface. 

■otherwise ba7C been done, if an.exposition of the case should 
be made, so that the people at large, who alone can apply a 
corrective, might have a view of all the important facts, as it 
were, at a glance. That they will apply it, sooner or later, is 
regarded beyond a doubt. 

With whatsoever of severity measures may have been treated, 
no malignity of feeling towards men has been indulged in. In 
such a work, it is impossible to avoid closely connecting the ac- 
tors upon the political stage with the acts performed by them. 
It is true, also, that the public acts of men in public station are 
public property, and are legitimately subject to the severest ani- 
madversion ; but, in exercising this right, there is great danger 
of trenching upon private character, andit is extremely difficult 
to observe so well denned a line of distinction between public 
or official and private character as to keep them entirely disuni- 
ted. This however has been sedulously attempted, and it is 
believed that no illegitimate or unnecessary reference to personal 
reputation has been made, as it is very certain that no such 
thing was intended. 

The writer has no interest in the experiment of publishing 
his hasty "Notes'* in Book Form. He will be satisfied 
sf the worthy and enterprising publisher is saved from loss, 
and the book shall prove to be of any service to the people 
of the State, in revealing to them either their own faults or 
those of their public servants, or in enabling them, with more 
facility, to correct what he conscientiously believes to be the 
enormous and still growing evils inflicted upon both State and 
People by the policy of the government for the last "Ninr 
Ykars." 

July', 1847. 



TABLE OF CONTENTS 



Chapter I. Introductory— Object and duty of Govern- 
ments: p. 1 to 8. 

Chapter II. A. D. 1838 — The great Monetary Revul- 
sion—its effects upon Mississippi— Mississippi behind 
other States in the restoration of credit and confidence, 
—Effects of new "Remedies for the Times" — Message 
of governor Lynch — extracts therefrom — Recommen- 
dation of the federal government to the deposite banks 
to grant "increased facilities" to the people — com- 
mencement of the "Bank War" in Mississippi — Ban k 
<'ommissioners' Report — Opinion of the Joint Select 
Committee on the bill to charter the Union Bank — 
Confusion in the Finances of the State and in the ac- 
counts of the Auditor and Treasurer— Defalcation of 
the Auditor (Mallory) — Irregularities in the Adjutant 
General's Office — Pecuniary difficulties in relation to 
Dublic printing — Mississippi funds at a discount in 
the North — Spirit of speculation — debt and distress of 
the people — Passage of laws creating more banks by 
the Legislature and Vetoes of the governor (McNutt. ) 
—Veto of the Real Estate Bank of Columbus, and ap- 
proval of the Union Bank Charter — Advocacy by Sen- 
ator (afterwards governor) Tucker, of the Real Estate: 
Bank of Columbus, and his protest against the Unicr; 
Bank — Singularly antipodal views and acts of Messrs, 
McNutt and Tucker: p. 8 to 20. 

Chapter III. A, D. 1838— "The great batch of new 
banks" — who responsible for their creation— First c: 
the series of acts to relieve Debtors at the expense ot 
Creditor?— Political character and history of gover- 
nor McNutt — elected by a minority vote — his influ- 
ence and policy— Act to amend the laws respecting 
suirs against endorsers, &c, (commonly called "Mc- 
Nuu ; s Law")— character and effect of that Act — sus- 
tained, as constitutional, by the High Court — criticism 
upon that decision — Effect of Stay and Relief laws — 
Judicial and Natural views of such laws contrasted 
— Effect of tne ascendency of a debtor interest in a 
Legislature: p. 20 to 35. 

Chapter IV. Legislative Acts of 1838— Extensive in- 
corporation of Towns, Churches, Insurance Compan- 
ies, and Railroads — banking privileges and authority 
to contract loans and issue bonds and notes, and to dea I 
in exchange, allowed the latter— approval of Railroad 
Is granting banking privileges by Mr. McNutt con- 
trasted with his vetoes— Increase of Stock-mortgage 



VI CONTENTS. 

corporations — Veto messages— extracts from the same 
— Approval of the Supplement Union Bank bill- 
Issuance of the Union Bank Bonds and gubernatorial 
view of the liability of the State on the Planters' Bank 
Bonds— Difficulty of ascertaining the policy of the 
government in regard to banks in 1838— Whig opin- 
ion that there were too many banks— extracts from 
message of Gov. Lynch — Large bank discounts to 
Commission-houses/the reasons therefor r and effects 
of the money crisis thereupon — the people the real 
defaulters — Apparent ultimate object of the "Bank 
War:" p. 35 to 49. 

Chapter V. A. D. 1838— Vfretcbed financial condi- 
tion of the State — Eagerness to relieve the pecuniary 
pressure by means of the sale of the Union Bank 
Bonds— Disagreement of the Executive and Legisla- 
ture as to banks — Vetoes — Appeals to the pockets of 
the people— Departure from the principles ol the 
science of government — Demand for discounts— Ex- 
ecutive threats against the banks — Report of the Bank 
Commissioners— forbearance of the banks to sue 
their debtors— proportion of specie to bank circula- 
tion — immense disparity thereof— advances on cotter; 
by the banks — recommendation by the Bank Com- 
missioners of leniency and forbearance to the banks, 
and against the resumption of specie payments before 
August 1839, and disagreement of the Executive 
therewith — Active commencement of the "bank war' 
— the great bank-war chief of the Union, and the 
chief in the war against the Mississippi banks: p. 49 
to 64. 

Chapter VI. Acts of 1838— Large appropriations for 
public printing and extra allowance to officers of the 
Legislature— expense of running the line between 
Mississippi and Tennessee — appointment of U. S, 
Senator — Pray's code — proposed Geological survey 
of the State rejected— Mineral treasures of the State — 
The great "Remedy for the times," the Union Bank — 
Vote on the second passage of the charter in 1838 — 
Reports of the Committees of the Senate and House 

' urging the measure, showing the pecuniary distress 
of the people, and urging the passage of the "Sup- 
plemental Bill" — Form of the bonds issued — Appro- 
val of governor McNutt of both the original and sup- 
plemental charters— Large vote for the supplemental 
bin — Universal belief in its constitutionality — Issu- 
ance of the bonds and the advent of Repudiation — 
that doctrine tested by National Law and by moral 
principle: p. 64 to 80. 

Chapter VII. A. D. 1839— Governors Message— Re- 
sumption of specie payments — proof that resumption 
was forced on too early to be permanent — Conduct of 



CONTENTS. Vll 

\hc party press with reference to the banks— The 
banking system of the State— Review ol the better 
system under the Territorial government — Early his- 
tory of Banking in the State — Effect of long loans- 
Extract from the Report of (he Bank Commissioners 
— Second and final suspension— Executive war upon 
the Union Bank: p. 80 to 90. 
Chapter VIII. A. D. 1839— Attack upon the validity 
of the sale of the Union Bank Bonds, by the governor 
— Defence of the same by a joint committee of the 
Legislature— Complaint of the Executive that the 
Union Bank had refused to be examined, had issued 
post notes and failed to establish branches — Defence 
and justification by the joint committee— Continued 
popularity of the Union Bank with the Democracy — 
Singular Minority Report of Mr. H. S. Foote — De- 
claration of governor McNutt in favor of State banks 
—his hints of the effects of forfeitares of charters — 
his acknowledgment of the liability of the Staie on 
the Planters' Bank Bonds: p. 91 to 102. 

Chapter IX. A. D. 1839— State finances— confusion 
in the books of the Treasurer's office — defection of 
tax collectors— defalcation of Auditor Mallory — Cor- 
respondence of the Executive and the President of 
the Brandon Bank — Letter to the Cashier of the 
Planters' bank and denial of the governor that he 
wished to embarrass that institution — Difficulties about 
the public printing — Defalcation of the Auctioneers — 
First passage and approval of bills to issue $6,000,000 
more of State Stocks — Scarcity of the printed laws 
and Executive recommendation to adopt "Pray's 
Code" — Indian outbreaks— Mi utary matters — The gal- 
ion law — Further acts of incorporation — Railroads — 
Revenue acts — Loan of the Union Bank to the State- 
Executive Contingent Fund— Act to imprison public 
defaulters: p. 102 to 114. 

Chapter X. A. D. 1839— Transfer of the State Stock 
in the Planters' Bank to the Mississippi Railroad 
Company — Minor "Remedies for the Times" — Posi- 
tion and conduct of the Bar of the State — Attempts 
to prejudice a community against the bar, as a elass, 
an indication of tyranny — Abolition of Imprisonment 
for Debt— the "Women's Law" — Protest of Judge 
Gholson and others against the transfer of the State 
Stock in the Planters' Bank— Veto message of Mr, 
McNutt: p. 114 to 125. 

Chapter XI. A. D. 1840— Second term of office of 
governor McNutt — Acts for the exclusive benefit of 
the debtor interest — constant opposition thereto by the 
Whig party — Governor's message of 1840 — Execu- 
tive testimony that great distress still existed, and that 
the State had lost "character and credit"— broaching 



Yin CONTENT?, 

of the doctrine that the interest o;" the fe-js shoal 
sacrificed to that of the many — Denunciation of a cer- 
tain class of creditors—Increase of suits— Unpopu- 
larity of the Federal Court with ''the Rule 5 ' — Break- 
ing up of various terms of the courts by the resigna- 
tion of Sheriffs and Coroners, and the neglect of the 
former to summon juries, &c. — Irregularity in the re- 
cords of the courts — Executive attack upon the High 
and Chancery Courts — Wretched state of the govern- 
ment finances — Defection of Assessors— Repudiation 
"casts its shadow before" — The Executive, having 
shown the miserable condition of the finances, de- 
clares itself opposed to an increase of taxes to meet 
the emergency: p. 125 to 135. 

Chapter XII. A. D. 1840— Expiration and forced con- 
tinuance of the Act to appoint Bank Commissioners — 
Executive statement of mismanagement of the Union 
Bank — State of the currency — Executive attack upon 
the Union Bank, and acknowledgment of the liabili- 
ty of the State upon her bonds— First glimmering of 
'Briscoism" — Executive advice to abrogate all laws 
making it penal to forgebank paper — Dr. Hagan, his 
newspaper and bank commissionership — his attack 
upon certain individuals— Agricultural Bank debt tc 
the United States government — Encouragement to 
the debtors to that bank not to pay up — continuatior.. 
of the "bank war:" p. 135 to 148. 

Chapter XIII. A. D. 1840— Attack of Dr. Hagan on 
the U. S. District Attorney contradicted by Legisla- 
tive committees — Attacks of Dr. Hagan upon the 
Senate — Resolution offered in that body to bring him 
before it — Opposition to the Federal Court — R. J. 
Walker's agency at Washington in the matter of the 
Agricultural Bank — Formal denial of the Executive 
charges against the High Court by Judges Sharkey 
and Trotter — The right to repeal bank charters urged 
by the governor — support of that doctrine by Mr. 
Upton Miller of the Senate— sarcasm upon the same 
by Mr. Graves of the House — Act to prevent banks 
from assigning their assets to pay their debts, and 
authorizing the governor to declare forfeiture of cor- 
porate privileges by proclamation — "Remedies for the 
times" — valuation act, a relief measure — extension o: 
six months in the collection of debts by giving a term 
to plead — abrogation of special terms of the courts — 
interference with the Federal Court — Recommen- 
dation to Congress to pass the Sub Treasury bill and 
censure of Senator Henderson for voting against it; 
p. 149 to 160. 

Chapter XIV. A, D. 1840— Internal Improvement 
scheme abandoned and Congress solicited tu grant all 
the government lands in the State to carry it out — The 



CONTENTS. IX 

project to raise $0,000,000 by State bonds abandoned 
— assigned and true cause therefor — Fears of the 
Legislature that Congress might assume the debts of 
the States — Act to repeal the charter of the Brandon 
Bank — Failure of the attempt to repeal a part of the 
Union Bank charter — Election of Slate Directors of 
the Union Bank — Executive vetoes — The State Trea- 
sury entirely empty — no means of meeting the per 
diem allowance of members of the Legislature — re- 
commendation of the committee of Ways and Means 
that the members and officers shall return to their 
homes — proposition to borrow of the banks to pay the 
Legislature — <; The Rule," unable to raise money to 
pay the debts of the State, are ready for the coupde 
main of Repudiation: p. 160 to 169. 

Chapter XV. A. D. 1841— Preparation of the public 
mind for the doctrine of Repudiation — Message of 
Gov. McNutt in favor of that course — Conduct of the 
Executive opposed by the Legislature — Anti-Repudia- 
ting Resolutions carried in both Houses by large ma- 
jorities — Executive array of legal quibbles against the 
payment of the bonds and contempt of the Legisla- 
ture therefor — Mr. McNutt's incompetency as a fi- 
nancier — his encouragement to the people not to pay 
the bonds, and not to elect representatives who will 
lay a tax for that purpose, or tax-collectors who will 
collect it — Attempt to make the Planters' Bank pay 
the bonds after the State stock in it was transferred- 
Proclamation of forfeiture against the Union Bank — 
impotence of the same and foolishness of the Execu- 
tive in attempting to enforce it — Second attack upon 
The High Court — Severe resolutions against the gov- 
ernor — Repudiation put forward as a democratic mea- 
sure in order to counteract the effect of the Presiden- 
Lial election of 1840: p. 169 to 187. 

Chapter XVI. A. D. 1841— Executive and Legisla- 
tive disagreement upon the bond question — Special 
message of governor McNutt, denying the charge of 
proclaiming the State not bound to pay the Planters* 
Bank bonds — Governor's "Review and Defence" of 
his own course in relation to bonds and banks, review- 
ed — insufficient reasons given by him for signing the 
original and supplemental Union Bank charters— his 
abuse of the bond holders— Repudiation defined — 
"Remedies for the Times" — funding of the State war- 
rants — Universal bungling of "the Democratic Rule" 
in matters of finance, currency and credit: p. 187 to 
198. 

Chapter XVIL A. D. 1841-2— Revenue— Defalca- 
tions, domestic debt, &c— Extravagance of the gov- 
ernment—public printing— manoeuvre by which the 
printing was retained by the democratic party in the 



X CONTENTS, 

face of the law—the "Contingent Fund" — "leg treasur- 
ers"— speculating tax collectors— tax list extended— 
"Remedies for the Times"— Legislation for the debtor 
interest — Interference with judgment liens— exemp- 
tion of property from execution — repeal of laws re- 
quiring sheriffs sales to be advertised — Carelessness 
and confusion in the Acts of 1841 — Repeal of the 
bank Act of 1837 — Resolutions in relation to the ta- 
riff— More Railroad Companies chartered— Assump- 
tion of governor McNutt that the bonds would not 
be paid, in his correspondence with certain bond hold- 
ers, in the face of the bond paying Resolutions of 
both Houses— Extracts from that correspondence — 
comments thereupon— celebrated letter to Hope & 
Co.— Protest of a coupon of the State for $50— Offi- 
cial insult to the bond holders in the Legislative Jour- 
nals — "Appeals to the People" on the bond question — 
Neglect of duty by the public officers — Cramped state 
)f the Treasury— Individual immorality an effect of 
immoral Legislation— A new Court, in'which to try 
State causes exclusively, and particularly the bond 
question, recommended by the Executive— Executive 
declaration that the Planters' Bank is not bound for 
the bonds — denial of Union Rank stock having been 
transferred to the State— Loss of the State by banks- 
greater loss by Repudiation: p. 198 to 217. 
Chapter XVIII. A. D. 1842-3— Administration of 
governor Tucker — Disagreement of the McNutt and 
Tucker factions — Mr. Tucker's summary of the ad- 
ministrations of his predecessor — confusion of the 
State's finance.- — charges of losses, extravagance, pro- 
digality, &c .— Detriment to the true interests of the 
State by violent party measures— Subserviency of the 
State to the National Government— Repudiating Re- 
solutions — Party capital made by appeals to the 
pockets of the people— Gov. Tucker's abuse of those 
who oppose the Repudiation of the Union Bank 
bonds — Trifling with the character and fame of the 
State by partv politicians— Tvranny of the leading Re- 
jiidiators— "Radical" and "Halfway" Repudiation- 
Advocacy by the Executive of paying the Planter-' 
Bank bonds— Mr. Tucker's merits as a constitutional 
lawyer— his opinion of his profession— judged by his 
rules— Gordon D. Boyd's "constitutional" oppo- 
sition to the payment of the Planters' Bank bonds— 
his opinion of National Law— The "Briscoe bill"— 
protest against it in the House— its contemplated mis- 
chief arrested by the amendment of the Senate- 
Progress of Legislation for the debtor interest exclu- 
sively: p. 217 to 233. 
Chapter XIX. A. D. 1842-3— History of the Tucker 
Administration continued— Defalcation of R S 



CONTENTS, I I 

Graves, State Treasurer — Disturbance in the ranks 
of "the Rule" thereby created— criminations and re- 
criminations — Review of the controversy — Economi- 
cal and patriotic disposition of Mr. Graves— Bad man- 
agement by the State officers, tax collectors, &c— loss 
of the State thereby — Ignorance of statesmanship and 
desperate expedienis in finance of the administration 
— the public printing— extravagance therein— Far- 
mer depression of the tone of public morals — the ^'ne- 
gro pleas" — sales of land for taxes — fraudulent pur- 
chases of the same favored by Legislation — Bad ef- 
fects upon the people of bad government — Fruitless 
attempts of the Executive to urge provision for pay- 
ing the Planters' Bank bonds— the progress of Repu- 
diation onward— Executive recommendation to cut 
down the salaries of the Judges: p. 233 to 253. 

Chapter XX. A. D. 1844— First administration 6i 
governor Brown — Prevalence of the Tucker school 
of politics and "half way" repudiation— no improve- 
ment in the character and credit of State or people — 
Progress of Executive and Legislative usurpation of 
the Judicial power — advocacy of settling judicial ques- 
tions at the ballot box by the democratic press — 
pledges on legal questions required of judicial can- 
didates by the Debtor Interest — Attempts of the press 
to gag the courts and bring the judges into contempt 
with the people — extracts from the State paper— pro- 
gress of the War upon the Judiciary — Subservience 
of the Executive to the "ballot box" method of settling 
judicial questioDS— Retrospect of the public life of Mr. 
Brown— solicitation of certain democrats to his Ex- 
cellency to become a candidate for Judge — Futile at- 
tempts of the Executive to provide for paying the 
Planters' Bank bonds— silent contempt of the Legis- 
ture for those efforts— Pernicious effect of the Repu- 
diating Resolutions— their demoralizing tendency — 
general disposition of "the Rule" to repudiate all 
debts — Illustration in the Senate of the low tone of 
public morals— effects of the laws to relieve debtors 
at the expense of creditors — Further attempts to re- 
duce judicial salaries— effect ot that movement upon 
:.e Chancery Court — high character of that tribunal — 
further opposition to the Federal Courts— Enactment 
to prevent judgments against the State from being 
paid out of the Treasury — Veto message of govt 
Brown: p. 253 to 268. 

Chapter XXI. A. D. 1846-7 — Message of the gov- 
ernor in '46— Refutation of the statement therein that 
the State had a specie currency — Low condition oi 
the credit of the State and people, the effect of Repu- 
diation and Briscoism — Scheme of abolishing all laws 
the collection of security debts— Political iss 



ill CONTENTS. 

settling down into simple questions of abstract, mora? 
Right and Wrong — The Currency of the State— Pro- 
position to prohibit banks by an amendment to the 
constitution — The bank war merged in a war upon 
the judiciary— Governor Brown's opinion of the quo 
warranto law in January 1846 — change of that opin- 
ion expressed in his reply to a call upon him in 1847, 
to become a candidate for the bench of the High 
Court — his acknowledged unfitness for the station 
confirmed — Succinct history of the "Briscoe Bill" 
movement, and its connexion with the present attempt 
to undermine the Judiciary — the Briseoe bill of 1846 
( Tor rey's)— Protest against it in the Senate — Con- 
tinuation of the history of the "War upon the Judi- 
ciary:" p. 268 to 289. 
Chapter XXII. A. D. 1846-7— Startling results of the 
policy of the Democratic Rule— Executive advocacy 
of paying the Planters' Bank bonds answered by a 
Legislative proposal to reduce the taxes — Dangerous 
effects of departing from moral principle in govern- 
ment—Power of the McNuit faction over the Demo- 
cracy, despite the defeat of Mr. McNutt as a candid- 
ate lor the U. S. Senate— Courage and determination 
of that faction and timidity of the opposite laction of 
the Democracy — Both factions the enemies of the 
true interests of the State — Perversity of the Press 
and non-committal of the Pulpit— Repudiation the 
cause of incalculable evil, and of no advantage, 
even pecuniarily, to State or people — Loss to the 
State and her citizens by the Resolutions of 1842 
already more than the whole amount of the 
bonds — Daily loss accruing from adherence to tha; 
doctrine — Apathy of bond payers— Deleterious ef- 
fects of the "Briscoe Bill," and other Relief and 
Stay Laws, upon the prosperity of the State — Failure 
of the policy of "the Rule" effectually to curtail 
either the credit system or the spirit of speculation — 
Conclusion: p. 289 to 304. 



INTRODUCTION. 

CHAPTER I. 

It has been said that if truth is the greatest ob- 
ject of the historian, (as it undoubtedly should 
be) justice is his first duty. It becomes doubly 
necessary to bear this proposition in mind when, 
as in the present instance, the historiographer of a 
political party belongs to a contemporary and op- 
posite party — more necessary to him, perhaps, 
than to a monarchist who writes the history of a 
republic, or to a republican who writes that of a 
monarchy. In one, at least, of the two last men- 
tioned cases, too many histories regarded as re- 
liable, and some having obtained the very high- 
est reputation, reveal plainly enough that the 
medium through which their authors respectively 
viewed their subjects was so clouded by national 
bias as, not only to cause them to overlook the 
beautiful regularity of feature which marks the 
countenance of Justice, but to give them a very 
confused idea of the honest and radiant, though 
rather plain face of Truth herself. We have 
the trustfulness to think we shall avoid splitting 
on the same rock, notwithstanding we have in- 
timated our conviction that our course naturally 
drives us more directly towards it than that of 
those to whom we have alluded. 

Fortunately for our intention to act up to our 
convictions upon this subject, our plan does not 
require us to enter, except remotely, into any of 
those great questions in dispute between the two 
great political parties of the Union, but only to 
note the acts, and their effects, of the Mississippi, 
branch of the Democratic party ; many of which 
have never yet been, and, we think, never wili 
be openly sanctioned or avowsd by the Demo- 
cratic party of the Union- We intend simply to 



adduce facts for which the government of Missis* 
sippi is responsible, and, thereupon, to inquire 
calmly whether the policy of that government, 
for a period of nine years, during which the party 
now in power has held almost uninterrupted 
sway, has conduced, or ever could conduce, to the 
true welfare of the State. 

This is a fair and legitimate question for the 
whole people of Mississippi to consider. We do 
not hesitate to admit that tee think it one of par- 
amount interest and importance, and pre-eminent- 
ly demanding investigation at this time ; but it is 
with the truly historical design of placing "the 
whole truth" before the reader, and thus enabling 
him to form an accurate opinion for himself, and 
not to color facts with our own views, that we 
devote ourself to this work of toil and, as we 
consider it, of true patriotism. 

Of course, our object is to induce men of all 
parties to read what will cost us time and trouble 
to write : it would therefore be impolitic in us 
to excite prejudice by entering into the arena of 
party politics, and to befoul our pages with its 
accursed accompaniments of personal abuse, fish- 
market slang-whang, &c We simply aim to 
place the whole course of action of the govern- 
ment of the State, for the period we have desig- 
nated, in bold relief and side by side with the 
moral and physical condition of the people, under 
that governmental action, from year to year. We 
wish to do this in a manner to enable the people 
to try the several administrations of Governors 
McNutt, Tucker and Brown, not by party tests, 
but by the impartial lights of political science, in- 
dependently of, and above, the narrow views of 
mere partisans and factionists. If the govern- 
ment, under those administrations, shall triumph- 
antly withstand the proposed ordeal, the people 
can, of course, do no better than to respect, sup- 
port and continue its policy ; but if, on the other 
hand, it falls, and known facts in the condition of 



people shall prove to be the well known 
effects of a departure from the true principles of 
eminent, will not common reason and com- 
mon sense loudly proclaim that the people should 
demand the surest guaranties that there shall be 
a radical change in the State policy of the leaders 
of the party in power, or, if those leaders will 
not give such guaranties, then a change of leaders ? 

We say nothing of the transfer of the govern- 
ment to the keeping of another party: we regard 
that as comparatively unimportant, if the party 
now in power will act for the true interests of 
the State. What we all wish, or ought to wish, 
is the real welfare of the State ; and we think 
there is not sufficient importance in the question 
of the political ascendency of this or that party in 
national politics, within our borders, to justify us 
in sacrificing to it our welfare as a State, or even 
in rendering the latter a question of secondary 
importance. If we are mistaken in this conclu- 
sion, we still ask whether there can be any im- 
propriety in examining narrowly the policy the 
Statej government has pursued in connection 
with the coexistent condition of the State and 
people ; and, if it be found an undesirable one, 
then, with a view to remove the cause of the 
evil, in inquiring whether that condition is the 
effect of that course of policy ? Surely, no man 
who believes that "perpetual watchfulness is the 
price of liberty" can object to this, and this is all 
we propose to do. 

Let us, for a moment, turn our attention to the 
subject of politics in its more extended and lib- 
eral sense — considered, if you will, as the science 
or art (or, more properly, the science and art, 
foi it is both,) of government. It is a matter to 
he regretted, perhaps, that too few of those who 
have aspired, and are aspiring, to be our legisla- 
tors and (we believe the intelligent reader will 
not venture to contradict us if we add) gover- 
\ have never given the slightest attention to 



political science, believing that the overflowing 
and rampant patriotism within them would sup- 
ply the place of all study and experience ; as 
some fanatical candidates for theological office be- 
lieve that the spirit of God in their hearts, being 
stronger than in any other men, in their own opin- 
ion, will yield them all necessary and proper 
knowledge to enable them to enlighten, protect 
and work out the salvation of tens of thousands 
of their fellow r s. Although this may satisfy some, 
we think all will admit that there can be no posi- 
tive harm done by an occasional recurrence to 
the lights of experience, and with this view, will 
glance at one or two of the fundamental princi- 
ples of this science, to which we may have spe- 
cial occasion to refer hereafter. 

A state (in the widest sense of the word) has 
been defined to be u a society formed by men, 
with the view of better obtaining the ends of life 
by a union of powers and mutual assistance. " 
Governments are the mere creatures and active 
"agents of such societies, clothed with power to 
carry out this design. They have no other le- 
gitimate object, and their acts are right or wrong, 
accordingly, as they pursue or pervert the in- 
tention of their creation. As intellect has been 
developed, civilization increased and interests be- 
come complicated and diversified, the action of 
these agents or machines called governments has 
(and we repeat it without intending unduly to 
startle those Solons to whom we have above al- 
luded) actually grown into a science, not the eas- 
iest to comprehend of any in the world or thor- 
oughly understood without study, reflection and 
practice, and very rarely learned through party 
newspapers or imbibed instinctively from an 
overflow of "patriotism." This science is call- 
ed political science, and though we have said it 
is not very often understood at a glance or "ta- 
ken naturally," like the measles, there are parts 
of it which can be and are understood,, but 



which we wish simply to remind our readers. 
ror whom (not aspiring to enlighten Solons) wc 
look among the most unpretending of our fellow 
citizens. 

The first of these to which we refer and desire 
the reader to bear in mind during his perusal of 
all we shall lay before him, is that, at the very 
base of political science, and, in fact, supporting 
it, is the natural law^ which, independently of 
human rules of action, and also independently of 
revealed religion, speaks inwardly to every ra- 
tional being in behalf of right and duty. 

Now, amid all the refinements and double re- 
finements of this science of politics, or, in other 
words, all the complications of the machinery of 
government, the first, great principles of the 
natural law cannot be consistently or success- 
fully dispensed with. To do so would be to un- 
dermine government and to behold it topple and 
fall. It is the foundation ; and the superstructure 
of governments may be likened to watch-towers, 
the possession of which is given to certain agents 
of those societies of men which have grown too 
large and unwieldy, and the individuals com- 
posing which have too many varied and compli- 
cated interests, to act en masse on every emer- 
gency, or to allow every man to construe and 
carry out the natural law for himself, without 
detriment to the peace and enjoyment of the 
people. But, inasmuch as the great mandates of 
the natural law, which are as immutable and 
eternal as the nature of man, must, whenever 
men are debarred from "taking the law into their 
own hands," be enforced by governments, the 
business of the latter is to see that Right is ad- 
hered to and Duty performed by and between 
man and man, each man and all the others, each 
and all of these and the government, and between 
each and all of these and strangers, foreign govern- 
ments, and, in short, every body and all manner 
of persons. Hence, the best writers on the 



natural law lay down the proper employment of 
those administrators of that law who form what 
are called governments to be, among other things, 
"to protect the interests of agriculture, commerce 
and manufactures (as conducive to the strength 
and happiness of the people,) to protect the per- 
sons, the personal rights and property of the 
citizens — to provide for the punishment of crime 
— to enforce the obligations of legal contracts — 
to prohibit immorality, and to cultivate a sense 
of religious obligation. 9 ' 

If it would not be asking too much, we would 
like most of our readers to re-peruse this short 
list of the duties of governments ; not that we 
suppose for a moment they do not know all about 
the matter, but because we wish them to bear in 
riind these propositions after we come to the 
narrative, or history proper, to w T hich we intend 
to treat them in the succeeding chapters. 

These " Rights" and " Duties," a sense of 
which is inculcated in the very nature of man, 
are, of course, inseparably connected with the 
ideas of equality and reciprocity. What a man 
yields, under this sense of what is good for all 
and just towards all, in any particular case, he 
expects to receive when the case is reversed :, 
nor does it operate only in cases between indivi- 
duals, but in the intercourse between all persons 
in all the relations of society. 

From these ideas of equal and reciprocal obli- 
gation, arises the notion (independently of the 
dictates of revealed religion) of the obligation of 
every one to "do as he would be done by;" show- 
ing the moral law to be, what in fact it is laid 
down to be, viz : nothing more nor less than an 
indivisible part of the natural law, and like the 
other parts, firm, fixed and immutable in our na- 
ture as the sun in the heavens, and just as indis- 
pensable to the being and welfare of mankind as 
the great physical luminary itself — another truth 
we wish the readers of our subsequent chapters 
to remember. 



In order that our repeated rejections ci all 
arguments drawn from revealed religion may not 
be attributed to a personal rejection of revealed 
religion itself, it may be but just to state that 
possibly our object was, first, not to awaken that 
nervous dread of an amalgamation of " Churcn 
and State" with which some persons are seized 
whenever the subject of morals is mentioned in 
connection with government and legislation, and, 
second, to avoid the immodesty of going ahead 
of the church in Mississippi itself, which, pro- 
bably from the same nervous dread of mixing 
matters, while it berates certain peccadilloes in 
private life soundly, has never been known to 
make a stir about any action of the government, 
or any private slips emanating directly from or 
encouraged by the action of the government, 
when that august body has violated the plainest 
precepts of morality, both natural and revealed, 
(if, perchance, the government has done so — a 
matter which is to be decided by our readers after 
we shall have stated "all the facts. 5 ') 

If we have not fairly arrived at the conclusion, 
the good natured reader will admit, for the sake 
cl the argument, that, into whatsoever other 
heads it may be proper to divide this science of 
government, if one sits down to study it, the 
natural law, with its unmistakable rules of com- 
mon justice, and embracing, of necessity, the 
moral law, can never be trampled upon or ne- 
glected with impunity by those mere creatures 
of its own, governments. If not admitted by all, 
those who agree with us may, we humbly sug- 
gest, with safety, still hold to the doctrine until 
those who deny it point out instances of violent 
infringements of the mandates of this natural law 
by governments, which have not reacted disas- 
trously upon those governments, on large por- 
tions, or upon the whole of their people. 

In the particular case in hand, it is a primary 
and essential object with us, not to charge upon 



the government of Mississippi infractions of this 
fundamental law of our nature, but, keeping that 
law in view, and taking the effects of such gov- 
ernmental action as we have had for the last nine 
years as we find them, diligently to inquire 
whether or not such has been the action of our 
government, leaving every reader to judge for 
himself, and, if he decides that it has, to judge 
farther, whether or not we should retrace our 
steps, repair the evil, in anywise change the 
policy we have pursued, or pursue one radically 
different hereafter. We shall not be found over 
anxious to force our own answers to these queries 
upon others, for the reasons that the views of any 
one individual are of no particular consequence, 
and that we do not intend to overstep the pro- 
vince of the historian, which is to collect and 
arrange facts, give the whole truth, furnish the 
moving causes, the aggravating and extenuating 
circumstances inducing or excusing acts, the 
alleged arguments pro and con, submit them to 
impartial tests, and leave the public to work out 
from the "examples" given what "philosophy" 
may thereby teach. 



CHAPTER II. 

The year 1S3S opened upon an exceedingly 
disastrous state of affairs in Mississippi. Under 
the two administrations of President Jackson, a 
radical change had been wrought in the long set- 
tled financial policy of the general government, 
which, if it did not cause, was closely followed 
by a monetary revulsion co-extensive with the 
Union. 

None of the States, perhaps, was more com- 
pletely prostrated by this blighting interruption 
to the course of trade and business than Missis- 
sippi, and, although this fact may be accounted 
for without much difficulty, it is not so easy to 
show conclusively to all, and especially to vio- 
lent partisans, why, while other States have, one 



ne, measurably recovered from the effects of 
the blow, Mississippi, with her immense resour- 
ces, has remained almost stationary: in other 
words, why pecuniary embarrassment has con- 
tinued uninterruptedly for ten years to cramp her 
energies and hamper her people, insomuch that 
this very year of 1S47 has dawned upon as me- 
lancholy a spectacle of blasted hopes, pecuniary 
disappointments, broken engagements and distress- 
ing pressure for money as any of its predecessors 
within that gloomy period. Nevertheless, we 
shall endeavor to throw some light upon that 
question by a patient investigation, and all must 
admit that the importance of the subject is worth 
the effort. Not only is it one of consequence to 
the people of the State, but of interest to politi- 
cians and statesmen everywhere. 

If, in fact, the federal government struck the 
blow which paralized the country, it did not 
escape a reaction ; for it is well known that 
President Van Buren was obliged to choose 
between seeing the machine stopped, with the 
reins in his hands, or call an extra session of Con- 
gress, and that he chose the latter. As to doing 
anything for the people, a new light in political 
science had arisen which established the dictum 
that the people must "take care of themselves," 
amid the general wreck and ruin, as the govern- 
ment would of itself, and they were consequently 
obliged to do so or throw themselves upon their 
respective State governments. Under these cir- 
cumstances, various States have been restored to 
more or less of their original health and vigor, 
and it is now matter of history that this restora- 
tion has been in proportion, on the one hand, as 
new remedies have been discarded, and old and 
well tried treatment strictly adhered to, and in an 
inverse ratio, on the other hand, to the number 
and novelty of the specifics and panaceas which 
have been administered, and to the original and 
inventive, but possibly uncultivated, political 
genius of those who have administered them. 



10 

Among other things of a general nature, it may 
be worthy of note and remembrance, that those 
States which have most persisted in a renunci- 
ation of public pecuniary obligations, remain 
most helpless and prostrate — Mississippi at the 
bottom of the list ; and, considering the amount 
of her exports, immeasurably behind all, in pri- 
vate as well as public credit and confidence. 

On the third of January, 1838, the last whig 
governor of the State, Mr. Lynch (the governor 
elect, Mr. McNutt, not yet having been installed ) 
delivered a message to the newly assembled legis- 
lature, a few paragraphs of which wilt show 
officially the then existing state of affairs, and 
some of the views of at least one party as to 
the causes which had produced it. These por- 
tions of that message we shall quote, and cor- 
roborate them by similar official testimony ema- 
nating from members of the opposite party, so 
far as relates to our immediate object — that of 
showing; the actual condition of the o-overnment 
and of the people of the State at that time. As 
to the various remedies proposed by both parties, 
and those applied by the party which alone has 
had the power to apply any, or to prevent the 
application of those which were injudicious, we 
shall treat of them hereafter. 

The first four paragraphs of the message are 
as follow : 

:: At a season of unusual pressure and prostration of 
commercial operations, growing out of the general de- 
rangement of our fiscal concerns — when every energy 
has been exerted to bear up under a combination of the 
most untoward circumstances, and when the distress 
brought upon the country has been borne with unequalled 
patience by a warm and confiding people, relying upon 
the wisdom and action of Congress, for the adoption of 
some measure that should at least wear the appearance 
of general relief— we are given to understand that we 
must shift for ourselves; that the regulation of, or inter- 
ference with these great interests, does not come within 
the province of that body; and, in obedience with this 
extraordinary idea, nothing has been effected beyond 
providing for the mere fiscal operations of the govern- 
ment through the Treasury Department, and the exien- 



11 

stOQ of the custom-house bonds. Chagrined and disap- 
pointed at this avowal, and the selfish policy pursued by 
the government, the patriot turns with disgust from the 
indifference with which the best interests of h\n 
country have been neglected, and reposes with renewed 
:onfidence upon the State authorities. Thrown upon 
our own resources, the necessity of your action becomes 
the more urgent. At such a juncture, your arrival, as 
the immediate representatives of the people of Missis- 
sippi, at the seat oi government, is auspicious, and will 
be hailed as the precursor of better things. 

:: The existing embarrassment ot the community, 
and its impending distress, call upon yon, under the 
emergency", to atone, in some degree, for the improvi- 
dent measures and omissions of previous legislatures, 
by restoring, as far as your action can effect it, that 
wonted confidence and aid to enterprise and business, 
upon which the country has been accustomed to rely 
and prosper. 

-'' 1 do not concur in the opinion so currently advanced, 
that legislation can effect nothing; and far less am I dis- 
posed to indulge in cold unfeeling lectures upon industry 
and economy, when many of our fellow-citizens are 
about to be stripped of their last pittance. It is true that 
there are instances of individual distress, which no 
change of times, however favorable, could relieve, and 
which are consequently beyond the reach of your aid; 
but this remark is* very far from being applicable to the 
community at large. There is a general embarrassment 
hanging over us, which, for the moment, impedes the 
rapid growth and prosperity of the State; but the rich 
product of the present season, with the addition of that 
of the next, will go very far to relieve the community 
from its present difficulties; and the buoyant spirit, the 
untiring energy, and the persevering enterprize of our 
citizens, need only to be aided by the credit of the State 
to t ise superior to these severe, but temporary reverses. 

" The pressing demand for money, and the very lim- 
ited facilities in obtaining it, make it incumbent upon 
your body to adopt some "measure that may enable our 
citizens to anticipate another crop, and to retain as a 
spring to industry, a portion of the means now in their 
possession to operate upon." [Senate Journal, pasres 26, 
27 and 28.] 

The following extracts are from the 15th and 
16th paragraphs of the same message: [Senate 
Journal, page 31.] 

'■'• In this posture of affairs the specie circular made its 
appearance, which had the effect of disturbing the course 
of exchange, by making gold and silver worth more than 
bank bills, and causing a sudden demand and continued 
run for specie. The banks made every effort by nar- 



12 

rowing their discounts, and confining their operations to 
i he purchase of bills to be converted into specie, in order 
to meet the demand for coin: and if these bills could 
have been made available, I have little doubt that they 
could and would have sustained themselves. 

£i Under these circumstances, it is to be regretted that 
the late President should have taken occasion to remark 
that 'the history of the w r orld never has recorded such, 
base treachery and perfidy as has been committed by the 
deposite banks against the government.' " 

This allusion to President Jackson will be 
better understood, by our mentioning that the 
message [Sen. Jour. p. 30] contains a quotation 
from the celebrated letter of the Secretary of the 
Treasury of the United States. Mr. Taney, to 
the deposite banks, advising " increased facili- 
ties," &a, and also an intimation that it was in 
precisely following the route thus indicated by 
the federal administration, the banks arrived at 
the goal of failure to meet their engagements. 

After discussing, favorabty, the establishment 
of a national bank, as a remedy — a subject we do 
not intend to discourse upon here, inasmuch as 
we shall be obliged to devote some space hereaf- 
ter to the consideration of the various "remedies" 
for the times, proposed and adopted — his Excel- 
lency proceeds : 

tC The sub-treasury system is the only other mode 
spoken of. In recommending this project, the position 
assumed by the President that, 'the regulation of the ex- 
changes of the conntry, relieving mercantile embarrass- 
ments or interfering with the ordinary operations of 
foreign cr domestic commerce, does not come within 
the province of the general government,' is as novel as 
it is inconsistent with the purposes for which it was con- 
stituted. :; [Senate Jour. 33-1 

Another extract, and we dismiss this document 
for the present. It has reference to the policy of 
the general government, as to the sub-treasury 
scheme, and is as follows : 

"At a moment like the present, when the exchanges 
of the country are deranged, foreign and domestic com- 
merce at a stand, and unprecedented evils assailing, 
almost to ruin, the mass of the people, it is gravely pro- 
posed to abandon these great interests, and, by this inde- 
pendent machinery, to separate the government from 
all banks/' [Sen. Jour. 39] 



13 

It is necessary to remember that the banks — 
which had suspended specie payments in May 
1S37 — were at this time beginning to be charged 
and arraigned with great asperity and even vio- 
lence in Mississippi, both within and beyond the 
precincts of the State House, as a cause of the 
prevalent distress ; and that the people (although 
still besieging the doors of the legislative halls for 
more banks) were beginning to fall in with the hue 
and cry against those already in existence, without 
reflecting that their suspension might have been 
merely an effect of the times which might be 
gradually remedied, or that those who were then 
most clamorous against them, as has been the 
case ever since, were those who were indebted to 
them — a circumstance well calculated to warp 
their judgment, and induce them to mistake effects 
for causes. Those who pretended to be states- 
men or, at all events, undertook to guide the 
helm of State, seemed to lose sight of the im- 
portant truth that every furious, popular ground- 
swell caused by private , pecuniary interest, is an 
indication to rulers to stand firm and steadfast, to 
abjure radical innovations, to alter laws and cus- 
toms cautiously, and to hold on, more deter- 
minedly than at other times, to that course which 
the experience afforded by the history of the 
past points out. 

The period of which we now w r rite was but 
the beginning of that popular tempest which has 
since swept almost every bank — good and bad, 
indiscriminately — from the face of the State, and 
rendered us of vast advantage, as circulators of 
their paper, to those of Louisiana, Tennessee, 
Alabama and others. But, at that day, there 
were some, even of that ultra, anti-bank faction 
of the democracy, which subsequently, its ranks 
constantly swelling with bank-indebted deserters 
from ail parties and factions, in and out of office, 
obtained the complete mastery of the democratic 
party in Mississippi, and almost merging its every 

B 



14 

other principle in the one, gave that peculiar tone 
and spirit to its policy and movements which has 
finally rendered it entirely distinct from, though 
It still is a part of the democratic party of the 
Union — there were some we say, even of that 
ultra faction, then just rearing its head, who occa- 
sionally went beyond the banks, and charged the 
cause of the distress upon the people themselves ; 
though, it must be admitted, in a very modest 
and amiable sort of manner. Mr. L. A. Besanqon, 
the President of the Board of Commissioners 
appointed to examine into the condition of the 
banks, after the board had, as he states, " criti- 
cally examined" seventeen of the twenty-eight 
banks and branches then in existence, in his offi- 
cial report to Gov. McNutt, [Senate Journal y 
page 125] says : 

" The country has been overwhelmed by a deplorable 
calamity. The root of the evil is to be found alike in 
the hearts and disposition of the people, as in excessive 
issues by the banks. The desire for speculation was 
fed by bank issues and accommodations; but we find 
that the creation of so large a number of new banks, 
which have flooded the country with their paper, re- 
ceived its impetus from this same spirit of speculation.' 7 

Several of the reports of committees and the 
legislative discussions of the period fully and, it 
may be said, officially, recognize the prevalence 
of great distress, and thus show, by the testimony 
of his political opponents, that the statements of 
Governor Lynch in that respect were not consid- 
ered as any part of a party or " panic" move- 
ment, but too incontestably and lamentably true 
to be denied. Among others, may be cited the 
report of the joint select committee, composed 
of members of both parties, on the bill to charter 
the Union Bank, in which we find the following: 

u It must be apparent to all that they (the people) are 
now writhing under an unusual degree of pecuniary 
embarrassment, which requires prompt and efficient aid 
to relieve them from that extreme state of misfortune 
and distress which the discerning eye can easily detect 
in the gloomy vista of the future." [House Jour. 116.] 

Many official documents attest that this sad 



15 

condition of the people was not confined to them., 
hut reached the government of the State. Indeed 
it appears that there was scarcely an office which 
was not in disorder and confusion. On the loth of 
January, a joint resolution, which originated in 
the Senate, passed the House of Representatives, 
in relation to the Auditor's and Treasurer's offi- 
ces, requiring the Joint Committee on Accounts 
to "take possession of the books, papers, records, 
stationery, and every thing connected with those 
offices, whether in the hands of the late Auditor 
or the representative of the late Treasurer, and 
to report at as early a day as practicable the con- 
dition of the various funds of this State," &c. 
[House Journal 10S.] 

The report of the then Treasurer, Mr. Phillips, 
embraces a period of only three months, com- 
mencing on the 2d of October, when he came 
into office, and brought down to the 1st January. 
[Sen. Jour. 53.] He states the balance in the 
Planters' Bank (which had previously suspended 
.specie payments) to have been, on the 2d of 
October, 1837, $327,382 24, and all the receipts 
during the three months, $245 56 on account of 
taxes, and $700 from other sources; being only 
$945 56 for the quarter, or at the rate of less 
than $4000 per annum ! It would appear from 
this that his suggestion of " the necessity of 
adopting some measure to secure the prompt and 
speedy collection of the outstanding and uncol- 
lected revenue of the State 1 ' was certainly very 
pertinent ; but it does not appear from the pub- 
lished acts of that session that the Legislature 
thought there was much in it. The report is 
very brief, stating a balance in the treasury on 
the 1st of January, 1838, of $279,613 31, but 
giving no information as to whether the whole of 
it was in the suspended Planters' Bank or else- 
where. Against the $945 56 received, the dis- 
bursements for the same period were $48,714 4S £ 

The new Auditor of Public Accounts, Mr. A. 



16 

B. Saunders, reported, on the 10th of January, 
up to the beginning of that month ; his report 
only extending back to the Sth of December — a 
period of twenty-three da} 7 s. It is a brief state- 
ment in figures, showing disbursements to the 
amount of $13,774 30, and winds up with the 
following paragraph : 

" It is probably necessary that I should inform you* 
honorable body that indisposition has prevented my hon- 
orable predecessor (Air. J. H. Mallory) from arranging: 
the books of the office of Auditor of Public Accounts in 
the manner he would desire to hand them over to his 
successor." [House Journal, 83.} 

The joint committee on accounts, to whom ? 
as we have seen, had been referred the examina- 
tion of the Auditor's and Treasurer's offices, re- 
ported to the House [Journal 402] on the 15th 
of February. It appears that the death of the 
former Treasurer, Mr. C. C. Mayson, had caused 
some confusion in the accounts of his office ? 
which gave rise to the supposition that his estate 
was indebted to the State. The committee how- 
ever came to the conclusion that this was er- 
roneous, and that, on the contrary, the State was 
his debtor upwards of $300. They how ever 7 
seem to flounder about in a chaos of uncertainty ? 
owing, to- use their own language, "to the de- 
ranged situation of the books and papers of the 
former Auditor, Major Mallory," and advise post- 
poning a further report until the next meeting of 
the legislature in order to have sufficient time to 
post them up, &c- 

It may as well be stated here as elsewhere, 
perhaps, that other departments of the govern- 
ment were in a like unsatisfactory state'with those 
which appertained more directly to the finances. 
For example : under date of February the 5th ? 
the Adjutant General, Mr. Charles M. Price, 
replies to a requirement of the House to "report 
the actual condition of the militia," &c, thus : 
"owing to the confused condition of the books 
and papers appertaining to that office, surrender- 
ed to me, I am unable to make an accurate report 



17 

of the strength of the militia or any definite re- 
port as to the number or situation of the various 
volunteer corps," &c. [House Jour. 300.] 

Many other references to public documents 
could be given, showing both the embarrassment 
under which the people labored in their indi- 
vidual or private capacities, and various vexa- 
tious impediments to the operation of the govern- 
ment, arising from the same causes. On one 
occasion, Governor Lynch notifies the legislature 
[House Journal 44] of the protest of a draft for 
$12,000 sent to New York to pay some of the 
State's liabilities : on another, the State Printer, 
Mr. George R. Fall, makes a communication 
[House Jour. 50] apparently excusing some de- 
lay in the delivery of the "volume of laws of a 
general nature passed since 1822," in which he 
thus adds to the testimony we have already ad- 
duced : 

"The appropriation made at the last session oi 
legislature for this object has been applied to the pur- 
poses for which it was intended, but will not cover the 
expenses of the printing. The reason the work has not 
been delivered long since is that the suspension of our 
-banks rendered Mississippi funds unavailable in the 
North." 

By way of showing, in passing, at once the 
abject dependence of Mississippi on other States 
and the low condition of the useful arts within 
her borders at that period, we will give the re- 
mainder of the paragraph, the first part of which 
we have just quoted. 

il A reason for making the contract in the Nona was 
that it could be completed there for about one half that 
it would cost in Mississippi. In addition, there was no 
.good bindery in^he State." 

From these glimpses of the state of public af- 
fairs, it is quite evident that every thing was in 
such disorder and confusion as to require strong 
and determined minds — men of calm courage., 
sound judgment and invincible principle, to right 
the ship of state ; but, unfortunately, it comes 
within our province to show that no men, in all 
respects equal to such a crisis, were in pc 
e 2 



IS 

The spirit of speculation alluded to by Mr. Be- 
sangon in his report above cited, had been almost 
univeisal. The government wanted money and 7 
through its Governor, M'Nutt, demanded what 
the report of the Bank Commissioners treats as 
an impossibility, of the bank which contained 
its funds. [Message accompanying the report of 
the Bank Commissioners: Sen. Journal 112 to 
120.] The people, almost to a man, including 
many members of the legislature, were over- 
whelmed with debt, and seemed ready, under the 
demand of the tyrant, Necessity, to do any thing 
and grant any thing which would relieve their own 
immediate wants, at almost any sacrifice of a 
shrewd and far sighted State policy, and, not- 
withstanding the great number of banks charter- 
ed in 1S36 and ? 7, nearly, if not every one of 
which had suspended, clamored still for more, 
and like the daughter of the leech, cried incessant- 
ly and vociferously "give ! give ! " 

- Never is the state in greater danger than when 
in the midst of a general monetary pressure, her 
law-givers come so directly and immediately 
from the people as to partake individually of the 
general distress. In the crisis of which we 
w r rite, a haughty and proud aristocracy, living 
on their immense hereditary and entailed estates, 
lifted above and scorning, as beneath them, the 
speculations of the day, would have been infinite- 
ly more likely to conduct the government in a 
manner more truly beneficial to the masses than 
the "immediate representatives of the people." 
And for the palpable reason that their judgment 
would have been unbiassed and clear. But as 
things ivere, never was there afiner opportunity for 
the leaders of the ruling party to exercise a no- 
ble and unselfish patriotism — to sacrifice private 
interests for the good of the State and all its 
people; and, in this conjuncture, it must be ad- 
mitted that Governor M'Nutt did display some 

determination and firmness, though unfortunate- 



& 



19 

ly, it has not been left even to his later acts to 
show that he was not a statesman equal to the 
emergency. The legislature went on manufac- 
turing bank charters and, on the 15th of Februa- 
ry, commenced his vetoes upon them. Alas ! 
he commenced that course just ten days, or, it 
may be, just ten minutes too late! The fact is 
matter of history, and time has proved the truth 
of the opinion, that, while he valiantly strained 
at gnats, he complacently swallowed a camel at 
a gulp. 

"These are times to be met — not followed ! " 
was his eloquent exclamation — doubly eloquent 
from its plain, unvarnished truth. "These are 
times to be met — not followed," says he, in his 
message to the Senate, on the 15th of February, 
on returning to it the bill to incorporate the Real 
Estate Bank of Columbus with a capital of half 
a million, mainly and primarily on the ground 
that there was already too much chartered banking 
capital in the State : but only ten days before 
[Acts of 1838, p. 33] he had signed the charter 
of the Union Bank, with its fifteen and a halt 
millions of capital, and on that very identical 
15th of February [Acts p. 44] had signed the 
act "supplemental" thereto, without his approv- 
al of w T hich, the Union Bank could not have 
moved a step ! That was the very point at 
which a truly able and firm general would have 
"met" the popular will, for the good of the peo- 
ple themselves. There an immense victory 
could have been won ; but, that great and cer- 
tain triumph foregone, of what avail was the 
contemptible skirmish with half a dozen gnats 
like the Real Estate Bank of Columbus ? 

Surely it was true: those ivere "times to be 
met — not followed ! " So, also, thought another 
most influential and popular leader of the domi- 
nant party, Senator (afterwards Governor) Tuck- 
er, who, on the 1st of February, almost "solita- 
ad alone," entered his "solemn protest" on 



20 

the journal of the Senate [p. 227] against this 
monster Union Bank, giving, among other rea- 
sons, this : 

"The charter enacts 'that no man shall be allowed to 
subscribe for stock, or become a stockholder b}^ purchase, 
unless he is a land holder or owner of real estate,' thus 
establishing a privileged order in society, a landed aris- 
tocracy," &c. &c. 

And yet this same Senator Tucker had sup- 
ported — nay, it would appear, even nursed, the 
aforesaid Real Estate Bank of Columbus through 
the Senate and, on the 16th of that notorious 
February [Sen. Jour. 359] just fifteen days after 
his famous protest against a "landed aristocracy" 
&c, voted, even against the veto of the 15th, 
for his Real Estate nursling ! 

Thus was it that these two men, both of whom 
have been held up as examples of determination 
and firmness — both of whom had substantially 
proclaimed that those times were not to be "fol- 
lowed" — met the influences of those times ! In- 
disputable, recorded facts seem to indicate that 
a murmur from the people of the State, calling 
for a curse upon themselves, could sway the 
one, while a growl from the city of Columbus 
could prevent the other from pursuing the set- 
tled conviction of each respectively, as to what 
was right and patriotic. 

Such is the infirmity of human nature ! from 
which, as we are hereby taught, the sternest de- 
mocracy is not exempt. 



CHAPTER III. 

It is not to be inferred from the views of na- 
tional politics expressed by Governor Lynch in 
those portions of his message which we have 
quoted, that his was a whig administration. On 
the contrary, it must have been perceived, from 
the names officially connected with the public- 
documents we have cited, that several of the ad- 
ministrative offices, under him, were filled by 



21 

democrats. The democratic complexion of the 
legislature of lS36-'7 also, must be well known 
by those who will recur a moment to the fact 
that it was that body which elected Mr. R. J. 
Walker to the Senate of the United States, over 
the distinguished and previously popular whig 
statesman, George Poindexter, and that it was 
likewise that legislature which chartered w 7 hat 
has been familiarly called " the great batch 
of new banks" — for the chartering of which, 
amid the subsequent attempts to arraign them as 
a main cause of all the troubles of the times, it 
has repeatedly cost the democratic press of the 
State infinite pains to show that many whigs in 
that legislature, as well as democrats, voted; very 
aptly illustrating the truth of the maxim that 
"who excuses himself accuses," but failing to 
disprove all that is contended for on the other side, 
namely, that the democratic party had the power 
to prevent their creation, and did not use it. 

But there is another reason for bearing in mind 
the political character of that legislature, which is 
altogether germain to the matter in hand. It was 
the legislature of lSSe-V which passed the first 
of that series of unjust acts, evidently intended 
to meet the monetary pressure, which com- 
menced early in 1837, by relieving Debtors at a 
sacrifice of the rights of Creditors. Several of 
these acts are, under various covers and guards, 
and notwithstanding all pretexts to the contrary, 
nothing less than those odious measures, stay 
laws, while some of them are something worse 
than mere laws to protract the payment of debts — 
a class of laws which never have been adopted 
and sustained anywhere without disgracing the 
government, lowering the moral tone of the peo- 
ple, and, never in this country, without danger to 
its institutions, and, indeed, virtually violating 
one of the wisest and most just provisions of the 
federal constitution. 

To the remainder of this series of acts, we 



22 

shall pay due attention in their chronological 
order, and as items in the regular list of remedies 
for the times adopted from year to year during 
the period mentioned in our title. That of 1S37, 
as it was the entering wedge for the others, it is 
indispensable to notice, and we call it to the at- 
tention of the reader here, in order that we may 
not hereafter have occasion to break the regular 
chain of events. Moreover, it is said to have 
been drawn up by Mr. McNutt, then president 
of the Senate, and, subsequently, governor of 
the State during a great portion of the time to 
which our humble "Notes" directly relate. If 
not the author, he was, at all events, one of the 
warmest advocates of that measure, as he was 
decidedly the ablest ; and such has been his influ- 
ence with the people and government of Missis- 
sippi, that every public act of his should be tho- 
roughly canvassed. 

Almost beyond comparison, the most intellect- 
ual and efficient man of his party in the State, 
Alexander G. M'Nutt may justly be said to be 
one of those few rulers, on this side the Atlantic, 
who have proved that they possessed the power 
to impress for a time upon a people, whether for 
good or for evil, Jackson-like, the character 
and views of an individual mind. What the 
people of Mississippi were, less than a dozen 
years since, and what they are — what the change 
effected in them — what character they bore 
abroad then, and what character they bear now, 
are well known ; and to the influence and ad- 
dress of that potent and long popular leader and 
ruler, more than to any hundred or thousand 
men in the State, are those changes to be attrib- 
uted. Not even his enemies will dispute the 
assertion that he is possessed of intellect and 
ia!ents of no ordinary stamp, and none can deny 
that, so did he imbue the people of Mississippi 
A 7 ith his own views and feelings, right or wrong, 
for a period even longer than that during which 




he was governor, that his history for that time, 
is emphatically the history of the State. Rising 
suddenly, amid the startling innovations of the 
new school of democracy founded by Andrew- 
Jackson, with its wild cries for the largest liber- 
ty and its daring assumptions of the heaviest 
responsibilities, stepping as boldly as though he 
had been an idol of the people into the executive 
chair upon a minority vote, occasioned by that 
truly democratic exercise of pure freedom of 
thought and action so admirable in the ichig party, 
but which nevertheless destroys its efficacy and 
success, and which in 1837 caused it to divide 
its strength between two candidates for Govern- 
or, he changed that wasted majority into a mi- 
nority, while he, at the same time, forced upon 
it the effects of the most ultra, novel and disput- 
ed views of the school he represented, in many 
things out-Heroding the Herod of that school 
himself. Seizing upon the financial crisis of the 
day as a means of fixing himself in power, watch- 
ing its every incident and wielding it to his pur- 
pose, trampling contemptuously upon those steady 
and peaceful influences under which Mississippi 
had so rapidly prospered, and at the same time, 
achieved for herself and her sons a proud name for 
chivalric feeling, high honor, and a refined sense of 
justice, which had created for her an unquestion- 
ed and honorable passport among sovereignties, 
and, for her citizens, among all people, Alexander 
G. M'Nutt appeared, a potent but an evil genius, 
with new views and new principles, gathering 
about him a crowd of crooked political disciples, 
whose public words and deeds have continuously, 
up to the present day, proclaimed the "proud 
name" aristocratic, the "honor," and all State 
honor, "a mere 'scutcheon" and the "nice sense 
of justice" a puling weakness ; stamping, in per- 
fectly legible characters, upon the statute book, 
as the cherished motto of the State, "get all you 
can and keep all you get;" subscribing, by means 




\v» 



24 

of public documents, proclamations, messages 
and the State paper, to the new morality that 
"creditors are the natural enemies of debtors," 
and inculcating the doctrine that creditors ought 
to be abused, as well as fleeced, as a matter of 
patriotism, and as a necessary means of keeping in- 
violate "that sacred instrument, the constitution!" 

As to the once lofty character of the State 
and that high and ennobling feeling of State pride 
which were the results of the conduct and policy 
of the old settlers of the territory, he may be 
said to have strangled both, only leaving to his 
pupils to banish the men and their descendants 
from the public counsels ; while, by moulding 
to his views and wielding at his pleasure the 
more numerous, but more pliable, because less 
intelligent masses which crowded (mostly from 
Tennessee) into the new counties, and even forced 
their representatives into the legislature without 
a legal election, and unsanctioned by any known 
law or precedent, to have obtained for the State 
and its people that bad name and low reputation 
which it is useless to deny she now bears through- 
out the civilized world, and will continue to bear 
until she retraces her steps, acknowledges and 
provides for the payment of her public debt, and 
blots out the words which disgrace it from her 
statute book. It cannot therefore be otherwise 
than important to regard particularly the law of 
1S37, of which Mr. M'Nutt was the most stren- 
uous advocate and which was the first of that 
series of relief measures that the genius of Mis* 
sissippi democracy worked out, under such in- 
fluences, to meet the times. 

If more were wanting to show a connexion 
between this act of 1837 to which we have re- 
ferred, and the period of which we have under- 
taken to w r rite the political history, it may be 
mentioned that the legislative journals of the 
session of 183S show that several attempts were 
then made to repeal it, but without success. Sen, 
Jour. 90,276, 315. 



The law may be found in the published acts 
of the called session of 1837 [p. 254] under the 
title of "an act to amend the laws respectingsuits 
to be brought against endorsers of promissory 
notes. " It may be added that the title is not 
full, as it rather loosely, but as events have prov- 
ed, successfully, attempted to reach suits upon 
bills of exchange, as well as upon notes. 

As we write for the general reader — in other 
words, for the people — we shall endeavor to give 
the substance of this law, divested as much as pos- 
sible of technical terms, so that its provisions and 
oilects may be perfectly understood by all. Pre- 
vious to its passage, the holders of promissory 
notes and bills of exchange had the power to sue, 
at their option, any party indebted thereon, 
whether maker, drawer or indorser, principal or 
security, in a separate suit, and, as a matter of 
course, to have an execution on the rendition of 
judgment. The law of 1837 took away this right 
and "compelled" the holders to sue all parties in 
one suit, or not to sue at all. To leave out of 
view, for the sake of perspicuity, its similar 
operation on bills of exchange, which, to say the 
least, is very blindly expressed, we will follow 
its provisions as to promissory notes only. It 
prohibits running an execution against an indor- 
ser of a note until after running it against the 
maker, and so as to a second, third, or as many 
indorsers as there may be upon it, unless upon 
an affidavit that the previous parties, respective- 
ly, have no property in the whole State out of 
which the money can be made. 

Now, to illustrate the practice under this enact- 
ment, let a case be supposed of a note with four 
indorsers upon it, and that neither the maker nor 
any of the indorsers except the last have visible 
property to satisfy the execution. The plaintiff 
must nevertheless levy his execution against 
each in turn, the return of which in each case 
requires a term of the court (6 months) so that 



• 26 

two years are lost upon the four, before he 
reach the only man of the five against whom it 
was of any use to issue an execution at all, unless 
indeed, he, in the meantime, performs the re- 
markable feat of swearing to what men have not 
within the length and breadth of the whole 
State ! 

But this is not all : this plain and palpable in- 
terference with, or rather deprivation of, a right 
of the creditor, for the benefit of debtors, is fur- 
ther secured by the last section of the act (proba- 
bly an afterthought) as if upon a conviction of 
the injustice inflicted by the preceding sections, 
and a doubt as to what that injustice might drive 
the victims of its oppression. As though to 
frighten creditors from venturing upon an oath 
which, from its very nature, it must always be 
difficult to take, but which the rank injustice of 
the law itself might render but too inviting to 
men pressed for money and stung to the quick 
by seeing themselves thus deprived of their just 
rights, it is further provided that if an execution 
is levied upon the property of any security or 
indorser when the principal has sufficient proper- 
ty any where within the boundaries of the State, 
open or covered up — for no distinction is made — 
the plaintiff shall be deemed a trespasser and 
mulcted in exemplary damages. 

Nor was this yet all : besides the plainly de- 
clared delays to which creditors were thus sub- 
jected, the law is chargable with innumerable 
others. Almost every section of it interfered 
with the established rules of pleading, which, if 
not intended to cause further dela}^, fixes its 
character as one of the most blundering acts ever 
drafted. It threw into the practice of the crowd- 
ed circuit courts an irregularity and uncertainty 
in relation to the chief part of the business before 
them, viz : these very suits upon notes and bills, 
from which it did not recover in three or four 
years. Dilatory pleas were of course rife — con- 



?, dismissals, appeals, writs of error. 

st abundant — and all at the expense of the 
unfortunate creditors, if not all in money, in time, 
which is the same thing. 

Again : notwithstanding the scrap of the his- 
tory of the law thrown out in an opinion upon it 

the High Court of the State, that it was 
••to avoid unnecessary costs," it may 
safely and indisputably be affirmed that no ten 
laws of the State ever passed, either before or 
since, were productive of such an immense ac- 
cumulation of costs and counsel fees as was this 
same law, from the causes we have already sta- 
ted. And that such would be its effect — a gol- 
den harvest for the clerks of the courts and the 

—was the prediction of many an experienced 
•lawyer when he first glanced over its provisions. 
Such is that remarkable stay law — if not such 
technically by name, such in principle,. in effect., 
and in fact — and to any well balanced mind, un- 
skilled in the subtlety of legal " distinctions' ' 
(sometimes without differences) and untramelled 
by "authorities" (which occasionally cut each 
other's throats) it must appear perfectly plain 
that this law, as far as it was intended to operate 
upon notes and bills in existence at the time of its 
passage, which seems to have been its main ob- 
ject, was as clear a case of ''impairing the obliga- 
tion of contracts" as was ever enacted, or attempt- 
ed to be enacted by any State in the Union. 
Even taking into consideration the whig princi- 
ple, to use the veto power as sparingly as possible 
and only in the most extraordinary cases, we can 
account for the fact that Governor Lynch did not 
apply it to that law, only on the supposition that 
lie must have believed it impossible that the 
courts would sustain its operation upon contracts 
already in existence. As to future contracts, of 
course the objection of unconstitutionality does 
fcot apply to it ; for a person who takes indorsed 

8. takes them with such remedies for en- 



38 

forcing payment of them as are provided by law 
at the time, and it is at his choice to part with 
his property or money for them or not. At least 
such is the plain common sense view of the ques- 
tion. 

Having said this much of this law, we are 
bound to go farther, and state that, as operating 
on contracts existing at the time of its passage, 
it has been sustained, as constitutional, by the 
judiciary of the State, through its highest tribu- 
nal, the High Court of Errors and Appeals. 
[4 How. Rep. p 648.] 

Of course it is not within, the province of the 
historian to bandy " authorities and precedents" 
■with courts, and we shall take care to prevent 
"what we may have to say on the subject of this 
decision from running into what a lawyer might 
term a mere " brief " on one side of a disputed 
point, or from spreading into the prolixity and 
difFuseness of a legal argument upon such a brief 
— either of which might tend more to perplex 
than instruct the general reader or plain citizen , 
uninitiated in the mysteries of legal learning. 
As to the decision of the High Court in this 
case, we consider it founded upon such " au- 
thorities" and "precedents" as were honestly 
and perfectly satisfactory to itself; and, before 
proceeding further, let us say, upon full convic- 
tion, that it is undeniably due from the historian 
of the period of which we write to proclaim 
aloud that the judiciary of Mississippi, elected 
by the people as its members are, amid all the 
turmoil and confusion of the moral aj&d political 
elements, has shone forth almost uninterruptedly, 
a "bright particular star," deprived of the light 
of which, anarchy aad utter ruin must have 
overwhelmed the people. Let it be further un- 
derstood that we have nothing to say of it which 
may not apply as well to the judiciary elsewhere, 
and nothing relating to that body any where in 
the Union, which may not, for aught we know 



29 

apply far more directly to the system of jurispru- 
dence under which it acts, than to those who ad- 
minister it. Premising thus, we shall speak with 
that freedom which is required of an impartial 
and untrammelled writer for the people on so im- 
portant a subject as the public morals. 

Speaking of the prohibition in the federal con- 
stitution against State laws "impairing the obli- 
gation of contracts," Judge Story says — "It 
would seem difficult to substitute w T ords more 
intelligible, or less liable to misconstruction than 
these; and yet they have given rise to much 
acute disquisition as to their real meaning." 
[3 Com. Const. 243.] Is it not this very "acute 
disquisition" which, in but too many instances, 
has deprived great fundamental principles of their 
efficacy ? A plain, sensible, but unsophisticated 
man understands those principles to which we 
refer from that intuitive sense of the universal 
or natural law implanted in his bosom by the 
Creator, upon which, as the same learned writes 
says, that provision of the federal constitution 
is founded : but when you talk to one of those 
unlegalized, but good, natural minds, which un- 
derstands well enough what a contract is, and 
what obligations it imposes, of the "distinctions" 
between the contract itself, the obligation of it, 
and the remedy upon it, and read a tythe of the 
legal speculations upon these, such a mind is be- 
wildered in the mazes of a too refined logic, until 
the principle itself is lost sight of, the morality 
of it is weakened and mortal clouds obscure 
the moral sunlight of Heaven. It is the plain, 
palpable deleterious and positively immoral prac- 
tical effects of this "acute disquisition" — this 
positive frittering away of first principles, by re- 
fining too much upon them, as seen by the com- 
mon eye of the common masses, that it is the 
duty of the historian to notice and to comment 
upon. 

The great principle of the natural and moral 
c 2 



30 

or universal law, which was sought to be en- 
forced by the framers of the constitution, by in- 
serting in that instrument the prohibition upon 
State legislation we have been considering, 
presents itself so naturally, strongly and clearly 
to the conscience of every ordinarily sensible man, 
of ^legalized mind, that he must see, or think 
he sees, clearly that half the nice distinctions 
which have been drawn between contracts and 
the remedy upon contracts, are in truth no dis- 
tinctions at all ; and it is perfectly idle to address 
to him the proposition to be found in the "authori- 
ties," if not in these words, directly to this effect 
in practice, if carried out in certain cases, viz : 
Although depriving a party entirely of a remedy 
upon a broken contract would be unconstitutional; 
yet, altering, extending, protracting and meddling 
with that remedy in a manner which, practically 
end in fact, dwindles it down into the mere shell 
of a remedy, would be to keep the constitution 
most faithfully and sacredly inviolate ! Common 
men feel in such cases, that even when they, in- 
dividually, get the benefit of such distinctions, 
they get the benefit of a positive wrong to another, 
and conscience silently but plainly tells them the 
constitution of their country has been violated, 
despite any declarations of the judiciary or any 
other branch of the government to the contrary. 
What man of plain unsophisticated mind does 
not decide at once that, when a creditor parts 
with his money or goods for a note, he does so 
with the moral and constitutional right to employ 
that legal remedy for collecting it, if not paid 
when due, which was in force at the time he took 
it ? Who can convince him that, upon any prin- 
ciple of common sense, that mode of collecting 
it is not virtually, practically and actually a part 
of the contract itself 1 Or who will say that de- 
priving the holder of a note of thaj remedy, or 
so altering it as to force upon him new condi- 
tions and accumulated expenses, risks and delays, 



31 

which he cuuld not have contemplated aud never 
bargained for, is not unjust, immoral and wicked, 
and does not, in plain terms, defraud him ? What 
man of thai description does not know, without 
reference to other than the fundamental authority 
to be found in his own bosom, that, in such a 
case as this, the distinction taken, however bol- 
stered by legal authorities, must be shallow, 
wordy, and dangerous in effect to that "morality" 
and sense of "religious obligation" to which we 
have referred in our introductory chapter, as laid 
down to be the duty of all rulers to encourage 
and protect, by every sensible w r riter on the sci- 
ence of government ? Yet, contrary to this con- 
clusion of the conscience of such a man, the judi- 
ciary say of this law, in the case before alluded 
to, l ' if we may be permitted to speak of its policy, 
our highest commendation is invoked for it." 
The judiciary then, judicially ignorant of every 
thing except what appeared in plain terms in the 
law, (as it was, we suppose, legally bound to be) 
was perfectly blind to what the people them- 
selves saw in this law, and was bound to con- 
sider its whole u policy" what every one else 
knew to be in effect, the smallest part of its policy. 
The judiciary, as such, and judicially, could 
neither see, hear, feel, comprehend, or in anywise 
be ''cognizant of " the actual facts known to every 
other rational being in the State, that indorsers 
were transferring their real estate by means of 
tax sales and other contrivances, running their 
negroes, or themselves to Texas, and in every 
other possible manner, availing themselves of the 
time (which is money) practically fleeced out of 
the holders of notes and bills, by the law, to in- 
vent and put in operation schemes for eventually 
depriving them of the money itself (which is 
cash,) and that while many speculating debtors 
flourished upon this mere matter cf time, num- 
bers of honest creditors were broken to pic 



32 

by being forced to give it, whether it broke them 
or not.* 

It is idle to say that these questions are above 
the comprehension of the masses. It would be 
ridiculous to assert that they cannot now, and 
did not at the time, understand precisely the 
practical moral effect of making, and judicially 
sustaining, the operation of that law upon notes 
and bills in existence at the time of its passage ; 
and, if our system of jurisprudence, under bind- 
ing authorities, renders it necessary that the ju- 
diciary must remain judicially blind to immoral 
effects so plain to the common eye, it is the more 
necessary that the subject should be again and 

* The judicial view of this question may be perfectly satis- 
factory to lawyers, as "consonant with authorities:" but whe- 
ther it dispensed equal and exact justice, the great object of the 
judiciary, may possibly be somewhat illustrated by supposing 
the following dialogue between a debtor and creditor, in 
which the former uses the very words of the decision, L 4. How. 
6481 ?*n& the latter is thrown upon the resources of his own 
mind applied to actual facts as they existed. 

Debtor. — "The remedy constitutes the legal obligation of the 
contract." 

Creditor. — I depended upon that when you persuaded me to 
part with my property for the note you indorsed to me. You 
were my guaranty for prompt payment. 
Debt. — ww I3ut the remedy is not a part of the contract." 
Cred. — The remedy provided by law at the time against in* 
dorsers was the part of it which indui ed a ■ to enter into the 
contract. I had no faith in the maker's pu u tuality, honesty, or 
the utility of suing him, (though I could not even now swear he 
has not sufficient property somewhere in the State to pay me — 
or rather my assignees ; for the delay forced upon me by 
new law has used me up.) 

Debt. — " If the remedy given be ns good as that which is ta- 
ken away, the obligafion of the contract is not thereby im- 
paired. 1 ' 

Cred. — But it is not as good. It is "fun for you, but death to 
me;" it has enabled you to use money due to me to speculate 
upon, but the delay has caused me to fail in business. 

Debt, (coolly) — "But the form of the actionis not changed '" 
Cred. — But the substance is : and by forcing time out of me to 
give to you, which was never a part of the contract, either ex- 
pressed or implied. 
Debt. — Your "remedy is neither weakened nor impair 
Cred. — Then weakened and impaired are words of which I do 
not know the meaning, and never expect to. We, business 
men, understand that the length of time given always weakens 
a security and impairs its value by increasing the risks. We sell 
our property at a higher price and demand more names when 
we give very long credit. 
Debt.— 4 "The statute takes nothing from the remedy. 1 ' 
Cred. — It has taken precisely what has ruined me. 
Debt. — '"Our highest commendation is invoked for its policy/' 
Cred. — That might be well enough, if it ruined nobody. 



o considered by the people tnemselves, who 
choose their own legislators, and can choosesuchas 
would be cautious about tinkering with contracts. 
The people of Mississippi have been taught 
by just such acts and decisions to know more 
of law in its practical operation than is for the 
good of any people : for such a knowledge pre- 
supposes a state of affairs by no means healthy 
or desirable. They understood the act of 1837 
as far as was necessary to carry out its worst 
consequences at the time, and many a fourth or 
fifth indorser of a note laughed in his sleeve as he 
saw a delay of two years, or two years and a 
half, thus beneficently interposed, by the hand 
of arbitrary power, between him and his creditor, 
who, if the law, in force at the time the note 
was indorsed and passed off, had remained unal- 
tered, would have had immediate recourse against 
him. What an inducement to such an endorser 
to put himself to inconvenience to endeavor to 
pay without suit ! How it "discouraged litiga- 
tion ! " of discourao'ino* which, according; to "the 
books," the courts are so fond ! What compro- 
mise or extension of time could an endorser get 
out of court, equal to that offered in court ? Two 
years and a half, and, sometimes, even three 
years! time enough to break the creditor! but 
that was nothing. And when he did view all 
this, and chuckle over it, what did he chuckle at 
but that which he knew, by that immutable sense 
of natural justice which God plants in the heart, 
which legislatures and courts cannot eradicate, 
to be an advantage to himself at the cost of griev- 
ous and outrageous wrong to another ? When 
he came to reflect in his closet and that "still, 
small voice," conscience, began to argue with 
him, how great, how infinite must have been 
his veneration for a legislature which could make 
and courts which were bound to sustain such a 
violation of natural Right and Duty ! What a 
heartfelt respect and love for so discriminating a 



; anient must have secretly grown up v, 
him! How had it enforced the golden rule "do 
unto others as ye would they should do unto 
you ! " and what a guarantee was that for the 
protection of his own rights at another time 
when the case might be reversed ! What a gov- 
ernment to live and prosper under! And what 
a prosperity it has wrought ! Let every man 
look around him and judge for himself of the 
moral cost of it, and say in what consists the 
benefit. 

In a money pressure, conscience becomes weak- 
ened in individuals within its vortex. Such un- 
fortunately is human nature; but it is in such 
times that a government, in all its departments, 
should be most particular to guard the Right. 
.Much has been said of the danger of a creditor 
interest, as mammoth banking institutions, Sec, 
obtaining political influence ; but that danger is 
infinitely inferior to that of the ascendancy of a 
debtor interest in legislative power, in such times 
as those of which we write, when the name of 
that interest was legion ; for then is to be feared 
the tyianny of an unconquerable majority — the 
oppression of the few by the many. In the case 
before us, what a universal sympathy must have 
been felt for debtors, and, most of all, for in- 
dorsers and other sureties. It needed but a breath 
to fan the already current murmur that they w r ere 
actually "injured men," while the holders of 
their paper, particularly if non-residents of the 
State, as most were, were "oppressors, jews, 
Shylocks, speculators," (as they are termed, in 
public executive documents) whom it would be, 
therefore, it must be inferred, next to a chris 
duty to feel no sympathy for and to impose up- 
on ! At such a juncture, what needed it but the 
enactment and sustaining of a tew such laws as 
that as we are considering to swell that murmur 
into the now wide-spread, but strange senti- 
ment, that "a man is not bound to pay his secure 



ty debts ? " Let the thing work on, and encour- 
age this feeling, in times of the ascendancy of the 
tyrant, Necessity, by laws ; and, following the 
example of the government itself in relation to 
its bonds, the people will come to the conclusion 
that they are not bound to pay those debts in 
which they are principals ! Look at the scheme 
proposed recently to abolish all laws for the col- 
lection of debts and substitute honor ! Honor ! 
after the course and example of the government 
has been such as to indoctrinate the masses with 
the idea that honor is a mere bubble ! 



CHAPTER IV. 

One hundred and forty-three acts were passed 
at the legislative session of 1S38, of which 
seventy-four (more than half) were acts of in- 
corporation or amendatory of such acts. Exclud- 
ing these, but fourteen of the whole number 
passed, are acts of a strictly general nature: the 
residue being local in their application, or relating 
to private individuals. 

Of the acts of incorporation and amendatory 
to such acts previously passed, some tw T enty-four 
related to towns ; for which there appears to have 
bean a pressing necessity, insomuch that many 
of the acts bear strong signs of haste in drafting, 
no less than three towns, in one county, were 
dashed off' in one act [Acts p. 98] and some 
towns were incorporated of no greater extent 
than half a mile square, and containing no other 
buildings than a few log cabins; almost all 
of which were afterwards very useful in filling 
up the deficiency in the circulating medium by 
what w r ere vulgarly called "Shinplasters. " Look- 
ing over the list of these, and observing the evi- 
dent facilities for obtaining corporate privileges, 
it is somewhat surprising that the bill "to incor- 
porate Cock-crow Hill" [House Jour. 406] was 
definitely postponed. 



tree churches were incorporated, but it is to 
be inferred that the seeming disparity in numbers 
between towns and churches is deceptive, and 
that the applications for ecclesiastical corpora- 
tions must have been numerous and troublesome, 
or it was anticipated they would be so, and that 
it was therefore decided to "make one job of it'' 
and pass an act allowing them all several of 
the rights and privileges incident to corporations 
at a jump, which was accordingly done by pass- 
ing u An act granting certain powers and privi- 
leges to the officers of organized religious societies 
within this State." [Acts p. 57.] All that is 
necessary under this sweeping enactment, is for 
"any body of people" to "organize themselves 
as a religious sect" and "establish a place of wor- 
ship," and then they may receive or purchase 
"lands, tenements," &c, "sue and be sued," &c. 
"in as full and ample a manner as if they were 
incorporated by law." By way of salvo to 
this loose sort of legislation, the power of repeal- 
ing these quasi charters is duly and seriously re- 
served. 

It was further deemed expedient to charter a 
Fire and Marine Insurance Company at Port 
Gibson, the stock "secured by mortgages on real 
estate, or by a pledge of the stock of either of 
the banks of this State" — a very beneficial in- 
vestment for stockholders in banks, who might 
thus draw a dividend from the bank and another 
from the insurance company on the same capital, 
though one would think this mode of making up 
the capital of an insurance company rather an 
impediment in the way of prompt payment of 
the losses of insurers. 

Another " Fire and Marine" Insurance Com- 
pany was considered necessary at Brandon, and 
accordingly chartered. We have no data within 
our reach as to the amount of marine insurance 
effected at either of these institutions, but, from 
their rather inland locations, it is to be presumed 
it was not large. 



37 

A tow-boat company, an importing and export- 
ing company, a shipping company, and a steam- 
packet company, were also incorporated. 

Besides incorporating the Raymond Railroad 
Company, the Eagle Railroad and Lumber Com- 
pany, and the Newton and Lauderdale Railroad 
and Turnpike Company, to which banking privi- 
leges were neither given nor expressly prohibited, 
fifteen acts were passed relating to Banking, Rail- 
road, or Banking and Railroad Companies, for 
the most part extending privileges, a glance at 
several of which will be requisite to illustrate the 
particular character of the legislative and execu- 
tive proceedings of 1838. The Eagle Railroad 
and Lumber Company [Acts 190] is authorized 
to borrow "any sum of money not exceeding their 
capital stock." The Paulding and Pontotoc 
Railroad Company was one of the most stupen- 
dous institutions of the da} r , (in its undertakings,) 
its "main object" being declared to be [Acts 248] 
the construction of "a railroad from the town of 
Paulding in the county of Jasper, in the direc- 
tion of the county of Choctaw, thence to Hous- 
ton in the county of Chickasaw, thence to the 
town of Pontotoc, and thence to some point on 
the Tennessee river, in the county of Tish- 
emingo; and also a railroad from Mississippi 
City, in the county of Jackson, to the town of 
Jackson, to connect with the railroad from 
Natchez and Vicksburg, thence, in the most 
practicable route, to connect at some suitable 
point with the road from Paulding to Pontotoc, 
in the counties of Choctaw and Winston." 

Taking all this into consideration, it might, 
after a glance at these various points on the map 
and observing the magnificent distances between 
them, have been quite necessary to add, "they 
may deal in exchange and other stock, may make, 
contract and issue their promissory notes" [p. 249] 
to the amount of their capital stock, and take 
mortgages, instead of money, for the stock "upon 



3B 

which a loan or loans may be made," [p. 2511 
and issue bonds therefor, [p. 252] and, in short, 
be as much of a real estate bank of circulation as 
any of the rest, so that that fact did not actually 
appear in the title, and therefore could be con- 
sistently signed by Governor McNutt — which 
his excellency accordingly did on the 16ih of 
February, after he had fully entered upon his 
course of vetoing banks. 

As a saving distinction was taken, in the be- 
ginning of the "bank war," in favor of those 
which were required to construct railroads , it 
may be as well to "look into some of those acts 
which were passed and approved, seemingly un- 
der that distinction, and in doing so, it may lie 
profitable to look a little deeper than merely into 
their titles. In the first place it may be impor- 
tant to remember that not a single one of the rail- 
roads contemplated by the acts relating to these 
corporations, passed at the session of 1838, are 
at this day in operation, and that most of the com- 
panies never laid a rail. It will be recollected 
also, as we go along, that we mentioned certain 
solemn objections of a prominent and leading 
democrat, (Senator, afterwards Gov. Tucker,) 
against the real estate (mortgage) plan, as creating 
a " landed aristocracy," &c; which plan, as if to 
render the chapter of contradictions and incon- 
sistencies we are remarking upon wholly inexpli- 
cable, it will be found by extracts we shall give 
hereafter from the veto message of Gov. McNutt 
to the Senate, on returning the bill to incorporate 
the Real Estate Bank of Columbus, and another 
to the House of Representatives, on returning to 
it the bills to incorporate the Yalobusha and Tal- 
lahatchie Railroad and Banking Company and to 
amend an act to incorporate the Yazoo Railroad 
Company, that distinguished personage also dis- 
approved, (having a few days before approved the 
bill to charter the Union Bank, and, on the same 
day, the supplement thereto.) 



39 

ider the title of "An act to amend an act en- 
titled an act to incorporate the Tombigbee Rail 
(load Company," [Acts 126] that company is 
authorized to " locate and establish a branch of 
their bank in the town of Louisville.' 5 Ap- 
proved, Feb. 9. So [p. 308] the "Mississippi 
and Alabama Railroad company" (commonly 
called " the Brandon Bank") is authorized to 
u locate a branch of said bank in the town of 
Madison ville," to be "governed by such rules 
and regulations as the mother bank may from 
time to time prescribe." Approved Feb. It*. 
The same company was authorized by another 
act [p. 82] to "dispose of their entire stock and 
secure the payment thereof by mortgages," and 
required to run a railroad from Mississippi City 
to Paulding-, instead of from Mobile to Jackson, 
which change of route was probably a great in- 
ducement for extending this privilege. Approved 
Feb. 5. The Mississippi Railroad Company 
was allowed until 1850 by an amendatory act to 
•build the railroad from Natcnez to Canton, (and 
in the mean time to go on and bank.) Approved 
Feb. 9. And the Lake Washington and Deer 
Creek Railroad and Banking Company was en- 
tirely released from making a railroad at all, and 
its name changed to "the Bank of Mississippi." 
Approved Feb. 16. So was the Northern Bank 
of Mississippi. Approved Feb. 9. 

Either as to the extension of capital or the 
advance of the real estate (i. e. no money) prin- 
ciple, the reader may refer to the acts of 1838, 
in relation to the Aberdeen and Pontotoc Railroad 
and Banking Company, the Northern Bank of 
Mississippi, and, in fact, to those relating to all 
the other railroad, banking and quasi banking in- 
stitutions chartered, or whose charters were 
''amended" or "defined," in that memorable year, 
and duly approved; but, in a general search of 
this kind, it may be well not to overlook Bridge 
and Turnpike companies, or some inkling of bank- 



40 

ing privileges may be omitted. Indeed, the only 
banking institution which seems to have "met the 
times" in a sensible manner by an amendment to 
its charter, is the (still solvent) Commercial 
Bank of Manchester, which instead of extending, 
asked for a redaction of its capital and to be re- 
lieved from a previous requirement to establish 
a branch. [Acts 188.] On the other hand, under 
the rather inexpressive title of "An act to define 
the powers and privileges of the Commercial 
Bank of Columbus," that bank (we believe with- 
out any railroad excuse) was simply authorized 
to establish a branch at Kosciusko. Approved 
February 16. 

Now, let it be borne in mind that this estab- 
lishment of branches involves, in every instance., 
an increase of capital, at least to the extent of 
the capital of the branch established, and, in 
several cases, is otherwise connected with the 
extension of privileges, such as allowing mort- 
gages to be taken for stock, &c, and we shall be 
prepared to examine more understandingly the 
several and celebrated executive bank vetoes of 
the period, in which, it cannot be denied, Gov, 
McNutt adduces some of the soundest reasons 
against chartering any more banks or extending, 
in any manner, the banking capital of the State. 
The observaat reader will however take care to 
compare the dates of these vetoes with those of 
the approval of those acts to which we have 
just alluded. 

The first veto message of Mr. McNutt was 
delivered on the 15th of February, on the occa- 
sion of returning to the Senate [Journal p. 347] 
the bill to incorporate the Real Estate Banking 
Company of Columbus, from which we extract 
the following : 

"On the 1st of January, 1836, five banks existed in the 
State with a nominal capital of about twelve millions of 
dollars, and less than nine millions of actual capital. 
Now there are twenty-four banks, with nominal capi- 
tals amounting to sixty-two millions five hundred and 



41 

twelve thousand dollars, and theircapital paid in amounts 
lo eighteen million eight hundred and eighty-four thou- 
sand three hundred and forty dollars. When the Union 
Bank gets into complete operation, as well as several 
others, which will soon commence business, our bank- 
ing capital actually paid in will amount to more than 
forty millions of dollars— an amount far beyond the ac- 
tual* wants of the people of the State. Most of the banks 
are authorised to issue three times the amount of their 
several capitals, and should they ever exercise their 
powers to the full extent in that particular, their paper 
would be little better than the old continental money. 
Political economists differ as to the extent of the circu- 
lating medium necessary to supply the wants of a State 
— none however contend for more than a fifth ci 
value of the annual products of the country; while oth- 

uppose that one dollar of circulation is suff, 
for thirty of product. The present circulation of the 
State is less than seven millions of dollars, and cann< : 
b^ increased without depreciating our currency stilf 
more. 

"There is scarcely a feature in the bill before me, 
which 1 could under any circumstances approve. The 
stockholders give their notes, secured by deeds of trust, 
for stock. The capital of the bank is to be five hun- 
dred thousand dollars, and may be increased to one mil- 
lion of dollars, and the company is authorized to issue 
two dollars in paper money for every dollar of stock 
thus paid in ; and can loan, on bond and pledge of real 
estate, at ten per cent per annum interest, and take what- 
ever amount of exchange they may think proper to de- 
mand, exclusive of the discount specified in the charter. 

'•A company organized on such principles cou!d, un- 
der no circumstances, keep in circulation paper money 
convertible on demand into specie. Banks can only 
loan capital — they never can create it. The circulation 
and value of paper money depends mainly on its con- 
vertibility into specie — not entirely upon the ultimate 
solvency of the corporation issuing it, as is generally 
supposed." 

******* 

'♦These are times to be met, not followed. I cannot 

co-operate with the legislature in chartering more ban£s 

— more especially when they are based upon principles 

evidently calculated to depreciate still more the curren- 

— procrastinate for years the resumption of specie 

payments — destroy confidence — break up the standard. 

alue, and weigh down the planting and commercial 

interests by the intolerable evils of a fluctuating, depre- 

iated currency." 

Another veto message was sent to the Senate 

the 16th of February, on returning to it a bill 



42 

to amend the charter of the Tallahatchie Bridge 
and Turnpike Company. [Sen. Jour. 380. ] It 
simply refers the Senate to the objections to the 
Real Estate Banking Company of Columbus, as 
above quoted. 

We have said there were sound views in this 
message : So there are. They are views bor- 
rowed from writers on political economy or are 
aphorisms known so well to every one as to have 
become generally admitted truisms long before : 
but the great practical question is, what did 
stringing them together on this occasion amount to, 
when his excellency had just signed the charter 
of that mammoth real estate concern, the Union 
Bank, with its fifteen and a half millions of cap- 
ital, and its wide spread real estate basis, and that 
very da} r signed the act supplemental thereto: to 
say nothing of the various acts relating to the 
many smaller banking institutions above referred 
to, which he approved about the same time ? 

There are some parts of these veto messages 
which, without explanation or reference to the 
statement of banking capital, nominal and paid in, 
appended, may lead to erroneous conclusions. 
Perhaps in fairness some thirty millions of nomi- 
nal capital should be deducted from the sixty-two 
and a half millions stated as the amount chartered. 
In making up that amount, the Union Bank with 
its fifteen and a half millions, and six other banks, 
(several of which are named above as having 
been just fixed off with increased capital by that 
very legislature,) the aggregate, nominal capital 
of which is $14,000,000, are included ; opposite 
to which, of course no amount is set down as 
paid in, because, as in the case of the Union, 
there had not been any chance to subscribe for 
stock; and in this way the great disparity of 
nominal and paid in capital is shown. As to his 
objection to this disparity, those banks whose 
capitals were entirely paid in were only three in 
number : the Commercial Bank of Rodney, the 



43 

capital of which was ,$800,000, and the Planters 1 
and Agricultural banks of Natchez, whose re- 
spective capitals were $4,212,000 and $2,000,- 
000, the two latter of which, as we shall see, 
have been the special objects of democratic perse- 
cution ; and yet, from the experience of the dif- 
ferent course pursued by neighboring States, 
whose banks were in no better condition than 
these, it is plainly inferable that, but for that per- 
secution, and the accompanying and continuous 
pandering for political capital to their debtors, they 
might have been now furnishing the State with 
as good a currency as that which it uses (and is, 
and will be, forced to use,) derived from Tennes- 
see, Louisiana, Alabama, and heaven only knows 
where else. Moreover, another course might 
have saved the State the amount of the Planters' 
Bank bonds, which she will now be obliged to 
pay almost wholly out of other resources. As 
to the Planters' Bank, connected with and inter- 
ested in it as the State, and, consequently, the 
whole people were, the policy of hampering and 
finally crushing it, instead of sustaining it, must 
be regarded as the most silly, simple, ignorant, 
blindly suicidal policy ever committed by a State 
government, unless it w r as secretly done with the 
cool, deliberate design of finally repudiating those 
bonds, as well as those issued to the Union Bank 
— a plan which the McNutt faction of the de- 
mocracy now openly defend. Which horn of this 
dilemma must be taken, it is hard to say; for 
though, as we have just stated, the present plan 
is to repudiate those bonds, the following ex- 
tract from the message of Governor McNutt to 
the legislature on the 17th of January 1838, ac- 
companying the report of the bank commissioners, 
seems to show that no such idea was then enter- 
tained by him. Perhaps, as it was a long time 
after he had signed the supplemental Union 
Bank bill and issued the bonds under it, before 
he or his party discovered its unconstitutionality, 



44 

it required yet a little more study and reflection, 
and a year or so more of time, to discover this 
same objection to paying the Planters' Bank 
bonds. These words of his, which may be found 
in the Senate Journal of 1838, [p. 116,] ought 
to be particularly remembered, or at least such of 
them as we have italicised : 

"All the revenue of the State is deposited in the Plan- 
ters' Bank, which also has the control of the sinking and 
other large funds, in which the State is deeply interested. 
The faith of the Sale is pledged for the redemption of 
bonds sold and invested in slock of the Planters' Bank, 
amounting to two millions of dollars, and in the event 
of a failure of the bank to pay the principal and interest 
of these bonds, the persons and property of all our citi- 
zens would be subjected to taxation.' 1 

By the veto of the bills to incorporate the 
Yalobusha and Tallahatchie Railroad and Bank- 
ing Company, and to amend an act to incorpo- 
rate the Yazoo Railroad Company, sent to the 
House of Representatives on the 16th of Febru- 
ary, [House Jour. 424,] it will be seen (in the 
following extract) that the same grounds were 
taken as in the message partly quoted above, 
with the addition of an expression of a suspicion 
as to the propriety of any longer admitting the 
railroad excuse : 

"These bills, if enacted, will increase the barring 
capital of the State six hundred and fifty thousand dol- 
lars, and, by their provisions, can go into operation with 
a greater part of their stock taken by securities on real 
estate. It may well be questioned, whether the construc- 
tion of railroads and the business of banking can be 
blended with advantage, either to the stockholders or 
trie people of the State. The experiment was first tried 
in this Stale in 1834. Since that time many such com- 
panies have been chartered; and the inducement for the 
grant, was always the making of railroads. Several of 
these companies have been subsequently relieved in part, 
and one of them entirely, from all obligation to make 
the required improvement." 

Very true: we have shown above that "several 
of these companies had been subsequently relieved 
in part" and, not only one, but, as we understand 
it, two, (the Lake Washington and Deer Creek 
Railroad and Banking Company, and the North- 



45 

em Bank of Mississippi) had been relieved "en- 
tirely," and moreover that the acts thus relieving 
them were passed at that very session, and ap- 
proved by the author of that very message — 
one, on that identical da)', and the other just a 
week previously. The consistency of vetoing 
on this ground the Yalobusha and Yazoo con- 
cerns then, is just about as striking as vetoing 
these and two others, the aggregate capital of all 
which was about an eighth of that of the Union 
Bank alone, on the ground of there being too 
much banking capital already chartered anl their 
real estate features, and approving the Union 
Bank bill and (let it not be forgotten) the sup- 
plement thereto, and all within a few days of 
each other ! 

If the people can deduce from these facts, of 
all of which they may more fully inform them- 
selves by referring to the published Acts and Jour- 
nals of the legislature of 1838, what was the 
policy of the government or of the dominant 
party of that period, they can do more than the 
author of this humble contribution to the history 
of those strange times, after a very careful exam- 
ination of the subject. Though in theory it 
would seem to be generally opposed to the ex- 
tension of banking privileges, we have seen that 
no such policy was carried out in practice. The 
chartering of the Union Bank itself, without the 
extension of privileges and capital to other 
corporations, enumerated in part above, suffi- 
cient to place this asertion beyond dispute or 
question : nor can it be affirmed, with a shadow 
of justice, that any such policy, even in theory, 
was more peculiar to the dominant party than to 
the opposition. To substantiate this, we shall 
refer to recorded facts. 

The idea that there were too many banks, was 
forcibly promulged by the whig governor, Mr. 
Lynch, in his message to the legislature of 1838, 
just before retiring from office; and we think there 



46 

can be little doubt that if his views, as expressed 
in the following paragraph from his message 
[Sen. Jour. 37] could have been made the settled 
policy of the State and carried out faithfully, the 
crisis would have been " met" in one respect in 
the most sensible and complete manner in which it 
was possible to meet it under the circumstances, 
and that " the times" would have been widely 
different ;?ot/;, from such as we behold. 

"The propriety of a single banking institution foster- 
ed by the State, with a view to the enhanced credit and 
ex'tended circulation of its currency, as above hinted at, 
is an opinion long entertained and expressed. The 
amount of banking capital chartered by the State, is not 
^o much to be objected to, as the numerous independent 
banks through which it is wielded. If. therefore, a plan 
at some future period, could be digested, so as to induce 
the banks to surrender their charters, and to consolidate 
their capital into one or even two Stale institutions. I feel 
satisfied that it would have the most salutary effect in 
giving to its issues an extended credit and confidence, 
that those of the numerous banks, already chartered, can 
never realize." 

We will add a few more extracts from this 
document, not only as showing the views of the 
whigs of the period in relation to the State bank 
system of Mississippi, but as illustrating suc- 
cinctly the cr.rl}' history of chartering those in- 
stitutions. These paragraphs will be found to 
include much of that which has since been boldly 
claimed and fully appropriated as exclusively 
democratic doctrine. We quote from the Journal 
of the vSenate [pages 28-9.] 

"As the value of our circulating medium depends 
upon the solvency of the banks, and the immediate or 
remote convertibility oi their issues into specie; a 
knowledge of their true condition is necessary to the 
restoration of that degree of confidence to which they 
are justly eniiiled, as well as to enable you to form some 
estimate of their ability, and the relief that may be rea- 
sonbly expected from their further accommodations. 
It may be well, therefore, preparatory to the adoption of 
such remedial measures as you may deem necessary, 
briefly to recur to their history, constitution and man- 
agement, in order to detect the defects and abuses, if any 
exist or have been practiced, and the agency they may 
have had in producing or increasing the derangement, 



^'During die existence of the old Bank of Mississippi, 

there was, as I conceived, from its very limited capital, 
an evident inability to supply by its issues a sufficient 
aire u laving currency to answer the real wants of the 
country; and under this impression I was desirous that 
its charter should be amended for the purpose of in- 
creasing its capital, and taking in the Slate as a consid- 
erable stockholder, and thereby supersede the necessitv 
of creating other banks; but the proposition was object- 
ed to, and the urgent demands ot the community led to 
the establishment of the Planters' Bank. 

*'A considerable time, however, elasped before this 
institution got into operation, and in the interim, the 
"Agricultural Bank" was chartered. This grant was 
urged and carried as a compromise, upon the plea of in- 
justice done the old lank, in chartering the Planters' 
Bank-, and the great necessity that existed to provide for 
the deficit to ensue in the circulating medium from the 
withdrawal of the branch of the 'United States Bank.' 

"This was succeeded by the application for the "West 
Feliciana and Woodville railroad, with banking privi- 
leges, which was opposed as being dangerous in its ten- 
dency, as it would lead to numerous applications, which, 
being urged and demanded as a matter of right under 
the precedent, could not be resisted. But the interest 
enlisted, and the plausible argument of aiding internal 
improvement, and promoting the general prosperity, 
carried it through, and I need not add that the predic- 
tions of the time have been fully verified. 

"In eliciting your attention to the cha iters and gener- 
al operations of our banks, I shall confine my remarks 
mainly to the Planters' Bank: not for the purposed* 
charging abuses upon that institution, to the exclusion 
of others, but for the sake of brevity, and for the reason 
that the State being deeply interested as a stockholder 
and director, and its character and credit being in some 
decree involved in the management, it more especially 
claims your attention. Nor is it my purpose in touch- 
ing upon what I may consider errors, to impugn or ani- 
madvert upon its general management, or that of other 
banks. Anger and censure would probably be better 
directed to those who brought the mass of them into ex- 
istence — to those who opened the way, templed and in- 
vited to enlarged issues, and to the failure of the legisla- 
ture to prescribe the necessary restraints, than to the 
banks or their directors. 

'The provision exempting the stock of this bank from 
taxation, and the one protecting its transactions from 
thorough invesiigation, I have always considered ob- 
jectionable on account of their unequal and discrimi- 
nating characters. Touching i;s management, so far 
as 1 am advised, I am induced to believe that most, or 
all that can properly be objected to, may be traced, first, 



48 

to its participating too freely in the views and interest of 
various commission houses ; and secondly in its becom- 
ing the depository of a portion of the public revenue — 
the one by a union of interests strongly tempting to 
avarice— the other, by its increased means, prompting 
to over issues." 

This idea of haying discounted too large a 
proportion of the paper of commission houses is 
common to this message, that of Gov. McNutt 
last above quoted and to the report of the bank 
commissioners ; but the authors of neither of 
these documents seem to have thought of one. 
very natural and true reason for that of which 
they complain, viz : Exact punctuality and un- 
failing promptness of payment are as necessary 
to the success of banking institutions as ultimate 
certainty in their securities; and while a planter 
or farmer would regard the protest of his note as 
a mere triile of a dollar and a half, which he 
would have to pay to the notary, and nothing in 
comparison with the convenience of waiting until 
he was ready to pay, a merchant was obliged to 
meet his paper to an hour, or lose his credit in- 
stantly. Hence it was, the banks demanded a 
"city name" (i. e. the name of a commercial man 
or house who met their paper when due) as first 
payer of the paper discounted — whether as ma- 
kers of notes or acceptors of drafts or bills. Thus 
the plan of inducing their commission houses to 
accept for them was adopted by the planters, and 
thus the banks looked particularly to the com- 
mission merchants for promptness , and to the 
planters for ultimate security in case of accidents. 
When the crisis came, the drawers and indorsers 
of these bills were not ready to put the commis- 
sion houses in funds to meet the acceptances, and, 
supposing those for whom they accepted, never- 
theless, ultimately good, the banks were forced 
to aid the acceptors, to sustain their credit; but the 
money pressure continuing the drawers and indor- 
sers, who were in fact the real beneficiaries of the 
discounts, still remained unable to place the com- 
mission houses in funds — the latter came more and 



49 

more heavily upon the banks — the banks could do 
no more for them — without credit, as merchants 
and mere intermediate links between the real 
debtors and creditors, they failed, leaving the 
banks to look to the planters.* The commission 
houses then were blamed as the great cause of the 
bank suspensions, just as, finally, the banks them- 
selves were anathematized as the cause of the dis- 
tress of the people, when in fact, the people them- 
selves were the chief cause of the whole trouble. 
The grand democratic panacea of getting up a 
hue and cry against banks and directing it against 
the institutions themselves instead of such abuses 
of the banking system (which w T orks well enough 
in other States) as they might have committed, 
by way of letting off the people, one and all, 
from what they owed the "swindling, soulless 
corporations," which was finally adopted, with all 
its elucidations of the science of government and 
its political and intensely moral effects, will be 
noticed in its proper place. 



CHAPTER V. 

The government of Mississippi in 1838 cannot 
be said to have adopted, or even to have agreed 
upon, any particular line of policy in relation to 
the wretched financial condition, of the State, nor 
indeed any policy whatever, unless the evident, 
unwavering and determined resolution of the 
legislature, the executive and the people to raise 
an immense amount of money from foreign sour- 
ces, by means of a mammoth banking institution, 
may be so considered. It, at all events, seems 
to have been almost universally deemed the best 
panacea for the pecuniary ills of the day, and yet 
the'process of carrying it into effect exhibits one 

* Thi? circumstance affords another illustration of the policy, 
in efeci, of the law of 1837, commented upon in the preceding 
chapter, as it "compelled" the banks and other creditors to lum- 
ber their suits against drawers and indorsers by including tbe 
broken acceptors. 

E 



5u 

of the most curious pictures of contradictions and 
incongruities ever presented to the world. The 
cool fiat of the historian must be that the general 
judgment was biased, by the excessive and general 
want of money , in favor of thus raising it, while 
the conduct of those who then gave their counsel 
and rendered active aid in favor "of getting the 
money, and now insist upon keeping it, presents 
an enigma w T hich is very hard to solve without 
attributing to them motives too depraved and 
atrocious to be charged upon men pretending to 
respectability ; for, that numbers should have 
fully believed in the "constitutionality" of the 
act then, after that question had been agitated 
and submitted to a joint committee of both houses, 
and fully discussed and reported upon, and yet 
solemnly disbelieve in it now, is wholly inexpli- 
cable. 

A comparison of the volume of laws passed in 
183S with the legislative journals containing the 
various messages of Governor McNutt shows 
that the legislature quietly disagreed to almost 
every recommendation of the executive, while 
the latter disagreed with itself on the most im- 
portant and sensible part of its own advice, viz : 
not to increase the chartered banking capital of 
the State ; for the governor approved and signed 
bills to increase such capital by the enormous 
extent of fifteen and a half millions through one 
institution alone, to say nothing of the smaller 
ones in part enumerated in the preceding chapter. 
Though undoubtedly a man of considerable force 
of character, his excellency did not possess suffi- 
cient of that quality to compel either the people 
or their representatives blindly to adopt his views 
at that time. Indeed it appears to evince a sin- 
gular want of shrewdness on his part to have ex- 
pected the people to follow his precepts, when, 
having resolved to approve and sign the Union 
Bank bill, he was not yet prepared to enforce them 
by his own practice or example, as governor. 



51 

1 1 was proved effectually afterwards, that there 
are secret political springs, lying below the level 
of the moral law, by touching which, in times of 
universal pecuniary pressure, majorities can be 
commanded, ready and willing to swallow almost 
any inconsistencies. 

By closely observing the progress of events, 
the reader will perceive that the great secret of 
the immense "democratic" increase in the State 
since the crisis, consists in the adoption of a 
course of political action at variance with the very 
first principles of political science — an oppression 
of one class for the benefit of another and more 
numerous one — a sacrifice of the rights of credi- 
tors, public and private, for the advantage of 
debtors. This was done by the promulgation of, 
ostensibly, political views in pretended accord- 
ance with what President Jackson established as 
^democratic principles" and the enforcement of 
a set of measures, all of which were addressed 
directly to the pockets of the people at the cost 
of a subversion of strict moral principle. Every 
one well acquainted w T ith the history of govern- 
ments, of course knows that, although this may 
succeed for a time, and, at particular epochs or 
under peculiar circumstances, for a long time, its 
success, as compared with the age of a State or 
nation, must be, at best, temporary; and that the 
great fundamental principles of the natural and 
moral law, being inherent in mankind and abso- 
lutely essential to the well being of the species, 
must necessarily, at some time, reassert their su- 
premacy. In doing so, they may either completely 
change the course of rulers or parties who have 
perverted them, or hurl such rulers or parties 
from powder. They are usually vindicated, first 
by a reaction of the abuse and perversions of 
them upon those who have been benefitted by 
such abuse and perversion, and there are signs, 
both in the political and social horizons, as well as 
in the nature of certain suits in the courts, that 



52 

such a reaction has fairly commenced in Missis- 
sippi. 

Having seen, in the preceding chapter, that the 
people themselves were the real defaulters, both 
to the commission houses and the banks, and that 
the commission houses failed and left the real 
debtors and creditors face to face, it will be a little 
amusing to observe the first political movements 
toward establishing the afterwards current fallacy 
that the banks had broken the people. 

The proper time for taking a clear and unin- 
terrupted view of this subject has now arrived. 
The banks are irretrievably ruined and broken 
up — inevitably past the faintest hope of resusci- 
tation — and it is therefore too late to repeat, with 
any effect, the asseverations of the administration 
press which choked down all defence of those 
institutions when defence could do any good, by 
round personalities, charging every independent 
writer or orator who attempted to do the banks 
simple justice before the public, and even every 
lawyer who earnestly endeavored to defend their 
rights in court, to be bank bought , parasites, &c, 
&c. No man and no party now wish to estab- 
lish a banking system for or in the State ; all 
seem to be agreed that, whatever may be its ad- 
vantages elsewhere, the state of public feeling in 
Mississippi is not fitted for it. With the best 
guards and restrictions and the utmost integrity 
on the part of the managers, the necessary confi- 
dence to insure success cannot be commanded 
probably in years from this time. Two or 
three good crops in succession, at a high price, 
would doubtless cause those who were foremost 
in cutting up the old banks, root and branch,, 
good, bad and indifferent alike — w r ho are the most 
incurable speculators and least to be depended 
upon for steadfastness in any thing but the pur- 
suit of their own selfish interest, to urge the 
chartering of new ones ; but the steady-going, 
justice-loving, patriotic men, who were ever ut> 



53 

Sinchingly determined upon moderate measures 
and plain natural justice in relation to the old 
banks, would throw themselves upon their expe- 
rience, and just as unflinchingly and determinedly 
oppose chartering new ones, and could only be 
overcome by overwhelming numbers. 

To do the people justice, the majority of them 
still tacitly and modestly admitted the truth of 
the proposition that they themselves were the 
cause of the troubles, so far as the banks were 
concerned, in the early part of 1838. In fact, 
they still appeared to believe in the banking sys- 
tem, as it was, and clamored loudly for still more 
banks, and yet more vociferously for more dis- 
counts from those in existence. Indeed, some 
seeming sympathy for those sinning, but far more 
sinned against institutions, was manifested by a 
very heavy majority of the legislature of that 
year, by the passage of an act over the execu- 
tive veto, to amend the post-note law. [Acts 332] 
This act, in effect, recognized the necessity and 
excused the fact of the suspension of specie pay- 
ments, and relieved the banks from paying the 
exorbitant amount of 12^ per cent, damages upon 
their notes^ and substituted legal interest; that 
is to say, the same rate of interest they could ob- 
tain from their debtors. The executive policy, 
however, which afterwards became that of the 
democratic party, as we have in part seen, and 
shall further see, was this : First, to give time 
to the bmk debtors — second, to compel the banks 
to pay almost immediately — third, to cut down 
damages, costs and interest payable by the debtors; 
fourth, to increase all these where they were to be 
paid by the banks. 

This polic3 r , altered occasionally in detail to 
suit circumstances, was extended to all other 
creditors and debtors respectively, as well as to 
the banks and those who owed them, and it is 
perfectly clear to the most ordinary comprehen- 
sion, that it could have no other result than to 
E 2 



54 

crush the creditor interest sooner or later. No 
matter what the real capital of individuals or cor- 
porations, if their interest account is continually 
against them, they cannot do a successful busi- 
ness, and, at some time, they must fail — make 
the balance of time against them also — that is, 
force them to give longer credit than they can 
get — and it requires no prophet to predict that 
their failure must be speedy. 

Perhaps the people in 1838 saw this clearly 
and were shocked at the rank injustice of it ; but 
due weight must be given to the undeniable fact 
that they were still greedy for "facilities," and 
besieged the banks for discounts even in paper at 
20 or 30 per cent, below the specie par. True, 
they might pass this money within the State, 
might pay debts to other banks with it, or might 
take up the discounted paper at maturity with 
such currency as they received ; but it is a well 
known fact that they besought discounts of banks 
who refused to put out a dollar of their own pa- 
per, and offered to take — nay begged for — such 
notes of other banks as the better managed insti- 
tutions had on hand, and which might be from 10 
to 12 per cent, more depreciated than their own. 
The intensity of the pressure and the difficulty 
of refusing discounts on the part of the banks 
may hence be inferred, as well as the fact that the 
people were yet disposed to sustain and support 
the banks. And it may be as well to remark in 
this connection, that these movements of the 
masses were, in every case, where the banks 
yielded to their demands and thus accommodated 
them, afterwards set down in the long catalogue 
of offences got up against the banks themselves. 

Lacking the courage to denounce, arraign and 
punish as other felons, managers of banks who 
might have "swindled" if any such there were, 
it was found easier to get up a senseless excite- 
ment against "swindling, soulless corporations^ 
(as though such things could have done any good 



or harm without the agency of persons who had 
souls,) and more easy to wage such a war against 
"the banks" in general, than any particular one 
of them. These indiscriminate, sweeping charges 
of course could not be fairly met, for as nobody 
in particular was charged, it was nobody's busi- 
ness to defend, and it is perfectly plain that so to 
have discriminated as to crush the banks which 
most deserved to be punished, would not have 
answered the purpose of relieving bank debtors. 
Those which were the best, were those who held 
large amounts in bills receivable still good and col- 
lectable by law, and it is worthy of serious con- 
sideration that, under the operation of the quo 
warranto law subsequently enacted, the very best 
banks were first proceeded against, while the 
great majority of the really worthless institutions 
have never yet been disturbed by its operation, 
and will not be unless some man is sued who owes 
them and is able to pay. To crush the whole of 
the "swindling, soulless corporations" then — to 
prostrate them utterly and render them completely 
defenceless and powerless, even in the courts, so 
that their debtois might run over them at will 
and trample their claims in the dust of the earth, 
would seem to have been the main object. 
Such, at all events, has been the effect, and it 
must be admitted that the whole movement from 
first to last, looks too much like the prosecution 
of a set design to bring about just such a result, 
to be considered a mere madness without any 
method in it. Let us now trace it up from the 
beginning. 

It is quite evident from the events of the period 
that the people were to be convinced, whether 
they would or not, that they, and not their cred- 
itors, were the deeply injured party, and like the 
man who was found weeping bitterly while his 
lawyer was arguing his case, and, being asked 
why he did so, answered that he never knew 
until he heard that argument, how badly he had 



56 

been treated, the people did seem to become con- 
vinced that they were the most injured men and 
the banks they owed the most rascally institu- 
tions on the face of the earth— those w T ho were 
heavily indebted to the banks leading the way for 
the more innocent but more ignorant who might 
have lost a few cents on the dollar by the depre- 
ciation of the circulating notes. The latter class, 
however, was small — the money passed in the 
State, every citizen seemed to be a debtor, and 
the bulk of the depreciated paper fell on foreign 
creditors. The veto message accompanying the 
act to amend the post-note law on its return to 
the legislature, exhibits, we believe, the first ex- 
pression of official admiration and sympathy for 
these poor bank injured " people," in close con- 
nection with the first faint mutterings of that'ex- 
ecutive thunder which afterwards stirred up the 
peculiar friends of "the people" to a flood of vitu- 
peration and abuse, and finally burst upon the 
"soulless" in a war of extermination. We give 
a short paragraph from that document, with some 
explanatory notes of our own interspersed : 

11 No people have ev r er been as indulgent to their bank- 
ing institutions (i. e. no debtors ever so indulgent to their 
creditors) as the Mississippians; but public attention is 
now awakened, and the time is not far distant when they 
will be called to a severe account, and existing abuses 
(i. e. : principally, the bank suspension caused bv the 
failure of the people to pay them) corrected." [fiouse 
Journal 1838, page 432.] 

The legislature however, as we have seen, did 
not yet fully understand how their constituents 
had been so badly treated by being allowed to 
become debtors to the banks, or how the banks 
were to blame for not paying when their debtors 
would not pay them, and a law had actually been 
passed virtually giving the latter more time to 
pay. At least, this is fairly inferrable from the 
fact that the vetoed bill was passed over his ex- 
cellency's head by the sweeping vote of 37 to 9 
in the House [Journal 433] and 16 to 4 in the 
Senate. [Journal 378.] 



57 

Something of this sort of sympathy for " the 
people" is also to be found in the Report of the 
bank commissioners. [Sen. Jour. 125.] It is 
in the words of the extract below, saving, as be- 
fore, those which are in parentheses, and which 
we interpolate by way of explanation ; but it ap- 
pears that the commissioners occasionally found 
themselves in a quandary in which they floun- 
dered about a little, scarcely knowing what to 
say and perhaps what to think. It is however 
proper to state, on the other hand, that their Re- 
port is in many respects sensible and moderate, 
that it by no means advises rash proceedings, and, 
as a whole, does not at all seem to us to be liable 
to a charge made against it at the time — that of 
truckling to the views of the executive. We 
see no very important objection to the scheme of 
a general law they recommend to be passed [Sen. 
Journal 131] and presume the banks would have 
agreed to accept it in consideration of an amnesty 
for past offences. But to the extract : 

;: A people never have borne more patiently their 
wrongs. Never did such a spirit of forbearance pervade 
a community (i. e. of debtors) as that which characterizes 
oar own. Weighed down by the prustration of com- 
mercial credit, overwhelmed by a domestic and for- 
eign debt accumulated during the rage of a speculating 
mania, bank credits strained to their utmost tension, (in 
favor of these people,) the country flooded with a cur- 
rency that depreciates with its increasing redundancy, 
(the people still crying for more banks to make more 
such currency, and more of that in existence, such as it 
was,) still the astonishing spectacle is presented of a 
whole people quietly suffering these evils," &c., &c, 
;: and yet no suits are instituted against the banks to com- 
pel them to redeem each nominal amount with its prom- 
ised value!" (And for the very substantial reason that 
in a general suing match, the banks would have brought 
them in debt!) 

The commissioners however have the grace to 
add : " This spirit of forbearance is produced by 
a corresponding one on the part of the banks 
to their debtors, and by a general confidence 
which the people entertain in the solvency of our 
banking institutions and their ultimate ability to 



5$ 
meet all engagements." The Report also mani- 
fests a proper and sensible view of affairs in other 
respects. For instance: "The causes which 
produced this state of things are not now to be 
enquired into. The best and most permanent 
mode of relief ought alone to occupy the minds 
of those who are vested with the power of en- 
acting laws for the general welfare' 1 — a sentiment 
corresponding with one to be found in the mes- 
sage of Governor Lynch. [Senate Jour. p. 32.] 
" Thus situated, sound policy requires your best 
aid to sustain and not to crush our institutions — 
to remedy and not too rigidly enforce the penalty 
of the bond." 

The board of bank commissioners also declare 
that they "found the banks they had examined in 
a sounder condition, as regards ultimate ability 
to fulfil all engagements, than was generally be- 
lieved," &c. [Sen. J° ur - 121 -] They state the 
surplus of means of the seventeen banks and 
branches they examined to exceed their liabili- 
ties by the immense sum of $13,405,407 61, 
and, even after returning the amount of the capi- 
tal stock to the stockholders, by $857,093 65* 
[Sen. Jour. 123.] 

The proportion of specie to circulation is stated 
at about 1 to 10|; but it is shown that the re- 
turns of the cotton they had advanced upon, 
which would be equal to specie, or specie itself, 
reduced this disparity. [P. 122.] The dis- 
parity however was still too great, and should 
certainly have deterred the government from 
chartering any more banks at a time when almost 
every man in the State was pressed for money 
and it was notorious that there was no capital 
seeking investment legitimately* in the business 
of banking, notwithstanding the Report states 
that the great excess of circulation over specie 
"is no evidence of a w r ant of forecast or integrity 

* ''The holders of stocks in this State are the largest borrow- 
erj of the banks." — [Message of Gov.. McNutt, S. Jour. p. 118. 



on the part of the directories of those institu- 
tions, but, in most instances, has been the result 
of circumstances beyond their control." 

Among these u circumstances," the Report 
notes particularly the fact that the charters of 
many of the banks compelled them to loan one 
half their capital on very long time, and very 
sensibly adds, [p. 124,] " it is impossible for a 
bank with long paper only, although well secured, 
to meet notes payable on demand" — a matter 
which might have been thought of when the law 
of 1S37 relating to " suits to be brought against 
indorsers" was passed. 

After stating that the liabilities of some of the 
banks examined were enormously large, it is ob- 
served — " but it is worthy of remark that the 
directories acknowledge their reliance to be upon 
the planter as indorser, although the discount 
was made to the merchant, who loaned to the 
planter." At page 126, the Report says, "Le- 
niency and forbearance is recommended by the 
commissioners; for humiliating (!) as the fact 
may appear, the fate of the people and the fate of 
the banks are, at the present time, identical." 

This is what the people themselves and their 
representatives in the legislature seem to have 
thought, but it has been shown since that they 
were what is vulgarly but expressively termed 
"green" or ''verdant. " There was a secret be- 
hind the curtain, one half of which, at least, 
had they had but ears to hear or eyes to see, was let 
out by the executive message accompanying this 
Report — the secret of another new light in the 
science of government, by which the seemingly 
inseparable fate of debtor and creditor could be 
severed — namely, by sinking "the soulless cor- 
porations" into utter ruin, and thereby clear- 
ing the skirts of all those who owed them (who 
had souls to be saved, but which was forgotten ) 
of every sign of indebtedness without their pay- 
ins: a cent! 



60 

The commissioners exhibit a feeling of insulted 
official dignity, instead of the dispassionate views 
of statesmen when, after recommending that 
those banks which had shown a readiness to sub- 
mit their affairs to examination be permitted to 
continue their business, they advise that some 
"decided step" be taken with those which refused 
to do so. [p. 127.] This refers to the Planters' 
and Agricultural Banks, which very respectfully 
]Jour. p. 150-2] denied the right of the board to 
examine their affairs, inasmuch as another mode 
of visitation and examination had been provided 
by their respective charters. 

As to the resumption of specie payments, the 
commissioners thought it ought not to be enforced 
earlier than August 1839, and give very cogent 
and sensible reasons for that advice. 

The legislature seems to have tacitly fallen in 
with all of these views which advocate leniency 
and moderation, and to have admitted the correct- 
ness of the objections of the two banks above 
named to being examined in a mode different from 
that provided in their charters; for they passed 
no anti-bank acts, nor any law to compel the re- 
sumption of specie payments, nor any vote of 
censure against those banks which had insisted 
upon having their affairs examined only as their 
charters prescribed. Not so, however, the 
Executive. 

The message of Governor M'lNutt accompany- 
ing this Report of the commissioners [Sen. Jour. 
112] is a growling, running commentary upon, 
or rather a running dispute with that document, 
from beginning to end. He allows nothing for 
"circumstances beyond the control of the directo- 
ries, " the original defects in the charters, the na- 
tural connexion of the fate of debtors and credi- 
tors or the peculiar state of the times. He starts 
off with the declaration that "the magnitude of 
the abuses proven demand a speedy and efficient 
correction," but he suggests no mode of effecting 



61 

it founded in any thing like moderation or justice. 
He snarls over the fact that the banks look to the 
planters for ultimate security on paper discounted, 
through the commission houses, for the planter'* 
own use, and attributes that circumstance to the 
avarice of the banks in seeking to obtain usurious- 
interest in the shape of exchange* He says the 
ability of the banks to resume, and at the same 
time afford a sufficient circulation depends upon 
the availability of their discounts, and, taking a 
*ort of extra official view of those, thinks the 
banks cannot realize much from those most hea- 
vily indebted for several years [p. 113.] and yet, 
disregarding that fact and all the facts adduced 
by the commissioners to show that the banks could 
not resume specie payments until August 1839, 
insists on their being compelled to do so by the 
first of November 1838! [p. 119.] 

The Planters' and Agricultural Banks are 
severely arraigned by his excellency for not sub- 
mitting to the examination of the commissioners, 
who, he says were '"delegated by the legislature 
— the sovereign power of the State," and for ad- 
hering to the letter of their charters in other 
particulars. Determined that they shall not es- 
cape, he furnishes a statement of their liabilities 
on the 1st of May, 1837, "showing their circu- 
lation to be nearly equal to two thirds of that of 
the seventeen banks (and branches) examined 
by the commissioners," but showing also that 
their specie amounted to about a quarter of a mil- 

*In rejrard to damages, "the times 1 ' had been "met" in 1837. 
Most of the hills drawn were on New Orleans — the commission 
houses in the State bein^ mostly branches of Xew Orleans houses. 
It was enacted [Acts of 1837", Called Session, p. 175.] that "no 
damages shall hereafter be allowed for default made on any bill 
of exchange drawn by any person or persons within this State 
on any person or persons in any other State." It was according- 
ly attempted to apply this to bills drawn and protested before it> 
ge, hut the High Court declared Jt "most clearly unconsti 
tutional." (3 How/Rep. 203.) Jt was different with "bills drawn 
before and protested afterwards, under a previous decision (2 
How. Rep. 690) but we are at a los3 to discover the justice of the 
distinction. A holder seems as much entitled to the rate of 
damages as of interest allowed by law at the time he takes a bill. 
F 



62 

iron more than that of the said seventeen com- 
bined. They receive no favor — every thing i» 
wrong about them from the subscription to their 
stock up to date. He calls particular attention 
to the Planters' Bank, he says, because the State 
has a large interest in it and therefore urges the 
"adoption of such measures as. will vindicate the 
honor (not a word yet about repudiation) and 
secure the interests of the people of the State. " 
He speaks threateningly of "misusers" and how 
they work "forfeitures of charters," quarrels with 
the Agricultural Bank for having declared too 
large a dividend, quotes the political economists, 
as in his other productions, as to the proper 
quantity of circulation in a country, and avers 
that "excessive bank issues would only cause 
our currency to depreciate still more, procrasti- 
nate the resumption of specie payments and de- 
moralize the country," (but never a syllable 
about the monster Union Bank bill he then in- 
tended to sign, and did sign in less than a month 
afterwards.) He recommends various restric- 
tions, all of which it might have done well 
enough to insist upon as parts of the charters 
when they were granted ; but we have looked 
in vain through the whole document for any 
evidence of an enlightened and statesmanlike 
view of things as they were or the suggestion of 
any practical or feasible remedies for such a state 
of affairs as existed. There is no diplomacy in 
it — nothing of that calm moderation, cool self- 
possession or wary sagacity which should char- 
acterize a statesman in such an emergency. On 
the contrary, it is full of the signs of partisan 
excitement, and bears too many of the marks of 
the "knock down and drag out" school to be at 
all suited to the delicacy of the position in which 
its author, as governor of the State, and not of a 
party or a class, was placed. Even-handed jus- 
tice to all, at such a time, required the easiest 
and gentlest practicable method of righting the 



63 

ship of state. That all was wrong, every body 
knew. There was no necessity for enlarging on 
that point or upon the subject of how things 
ought to be. The main effort should have been 
to get them so, energetically, but quietly and 
moderately, without violence and in a manner 
that would not jeopardize any important interest 
or do injustice to any. As regards the State's 
interest in the Planters' bank, nothing could be 
worse policy than to fall out with that institu- 
tion, and from the well known character for in- 

ity and ability of its directory, it is plain that 
there was no necessity for so doing. Nothing 
has been gained and mueh lost to the State by 
interfering with that institution and hampering 
and perplexing its managers by legislation. The 
result could not possibly have been worse than 
it is now, if Gov. M'Nutt's views of its situation 
had been correct and it had been let alone to 
manage its own affairs. 

This message may be regarded as the first 
^limrnermg; of a declaration of war against banks. 
a fa mode that brave soldier, Andrew Jackson, 
who, (with reverence to his services to his coun- 
try in the field be it spoken) had some such no- 
tions of currency, circulation — in short of finance, 
as a science, and as it should be known to a states- 
man, as a common farrier might be supposed to 
possess of the science of medicine, and was about 

::iiful in the application of what he knew t ) 
that of which he knew nothing; and who, for 
'ack of possessing certain mental faculties of a 

i order, threw himself upon such as he cer- 
tainly did possess in a high degree, and evinced a 
reckless daring which was willing to "take the 
responsibility" of consequences it could neither 

•t nor retrieve — an empty responsibility, 

which for aught of good it could do to any one, 

ifter it was taken, may be compared to that of a 

<mild who, rejecting the counsels of experience, 

"takes the responsibility" of throwing down a 



64 

costly vase, or perchance, a coal of fire into a 
powder magazine. 

The difference between the great bank- war 
chief of the Union and he of the Mississippi 
bank war, may however be very great. The 
former probably never had the faintest idea of let- 
ting off the debtors of his chosen enemy. If he 
had, he never effected it. Had the latter any 
such ulterior object when he commenced the 
strife? Whether he had or not, he has effected it. 

It is not to be denied that there are sound views 
sprinkled through this message, as there are in 
others we have noticed by the same hand. Neither 
is it disputed that the Report this message intro- 
duced to the legislature showed the financial 
affairs of the State to be in a wretched plight. 
It is denied, however, that the former is at all 
original or revealed what was not generally 
known, and it is disputed that its spirit was pe- 
culiarly applicable to the existing state of affairs 
or suggested any means of altering them which 
reflection would not show to be inseparable from 
the rankest injustice. It failed to convince the 
legislature, as a reference to the acts of the ses- 
sion will show, that any thing recommended by 
it was feasible, except (and singularly enough 
too) that all bank stock, save that of such banks 
as were to construct railroads, ought to be taxed; 
advice which that body adopted, and passed an 
act accordingly [acts p. 176.] As to the rest, 
it but served to render what was before "confu- 
sion, worse confounded," and having fully stirred 
up the elements of injustice, left them, for a 
season, to ferment and work out wreck and ruin. 

Such was the beo;innin£ of that Democratic 
Rule in Mississippi which has taught the doc- 
trines of Repudiation and Briscoism — the spong- 
ing out of the public debts and the bank debts- — 
and, with a little more encouragement, will "pro. 
gress" until it reaches every other kind of debt- 



bo 

CHAPTER VI. 

It would be no difficult matter to fill a volume in 
recording and commenting upon the political events 
of 1838, which, in their consequences, have deep- 
ly affected the State. Many of those of lesser 
magnitude might be profitably reviewed; but we 
have already been obliged to devote so much more 
space to the occurrences of that year than we 
originally intended, that we are compelled to pass 
by much we could have wished to bring to the no- 
tice of the reader. 

Considering the extreme pressure of the times 
and the desperate condition of the treasury, the ap- 
propriation bill for the year (Acts 335,) was pret- 
ty large. Upwards of fourteen thousand dollars 
were appropriated for public printing, of which 
about thirty -five hundred was for publishing the 
Union Bank bill in some five newspapers. This 
is exclusive of some four thousand dollars provid- 
ed for printing the Acts and Journals of the legis- 
lature. Five thousand more weie appropriated to 
be paid Mr. G. R. Fall on his delivering 2500 
copies of "the report (probably meant for reprint) 
of the statutes of the State," and seven hundred 
dollars "to be paid immediately to assist said Fall 
to the speedy delivery of the work" &c. For 
these appropriations, though they may have been 
extravagant, there was the plea of the necessity of 
having the work done, but there aie some others 
which, under the circumstances, must be set down 
els extremely liberal, at least. Of the officers or 
the two houses who receive pay for their services, 
almost every one, down to the door keepers, came 
in for a share of "extra allowance," on the ground 
of "extra services," or for "additional compensa- 
tion," as in the case of Mr. Felix Labauve, "for 
the faithful manner in which he discharged his 
duties ;" as though the regular compensation did 
not contemplate a "faithful" discharge of duties, 
or the officers of the Mississippi legislature dis- 
charged their duty infinitely more faithfully thai; 
f 2 



66 

those of other States, or the State had so much 
money to spare that she could afford to be extreme- 
ly liberal. The sum of six thousand dollars was 
appropriated to pay commissioners for running the 
line between the State and Tennessee, (by which 
a slice of territory was given up to the latter) and r 
to follow large prices into small matters, we note 
that seven dollars and a half were allowed for half 
a ream of paper, which looks high, though it may 
hive been of very fine quality, and as large as the 
"State paper, 77 as the same act terms the "Missis- 
sippian,' 5 newspaper. 

Among the more important proceedings of the 
legislature at that session was the election of a 
United States Senator to fill the vacancy occasioned 
by the resignation of Mr. John Black, Mr. Jas. 
F. Trotter, a democrat, was chosen, over Mr. Win. 
S. Bodley and Mr. John Henderson, whigs; the 
party of the two last named gentlemen, as usual in 
those days, showing its unconquerable indepen- 
dence by dividing its strength, as well when it had 
no chance of success by unanimity, as in this in- 
stance, as when it had, as in the case of the preced- 
ing gubernatorial election. 

Several attempts were made to give the State 
the benefit of a sort of codification of its laws, the 
work of Mr. P. R. R. Pray, but without success. 
Some apparent remedies for the times, in a small 
way, were also essayed : for example, the lopping 
off of attorneys' tax fees; and some very curious 
measures, as a bill to enable guardians generally 
to remove the property of their wards to Texas; 
[House Journal 51,1 but these, and the like, were 
overshadowed by that great scheme for borrowing 
a few millions, the Union Bank, and did not pass. 

As we are now approaching the subject of the 
greater measures of "relief" we will premise by 
stating that no great disposition was yet manifested 
to "dig it out of the ground," or even to "see how 
the land lay;" for the Report of Mr. Mellen in 
favor of a geological survey of the State, [House 



07 

Jour. 237,] and that of Mr. Hancock, in favor ot 
encouraging the publication of a map of the State, 
[House Jour. 110,] would seem to have received 
the "go by, :7 even contemptuously, were it not well 
known how engrossing was the one absorbing 
project of setting the Union Bank in motion. As 
the subject of Mr. Mellcn's report, however, was 
an J still is one of vast importance, which has never 
yet been favorably acted upon, we are willing to 
contribute our mite toward saving it from oblivion 
by quoting a few passages from it : 

'•'The geologist and mineralogist is enabled to detect 
in the face of the country, soil, and in the rock, and oth- 
er geological formations, the presence of the precious 
metals, within the latitudes which are the Northern and 
Southern boundaries of Mississippi; upon the East and 
West, and between the Atlantic and Pacific oceans, gold 
and silver abound, and it is therefore not unreasonable 
to conclude that they may be found enriching our own 
>oil. Rich specimens of lead ore have been gathered wit/t- 
in a daifs journey of the capital of Ike Slate. Coal, zee 
are told, has been found upon the banks of the Pearl. 
Iron, probably in great abundance, exists within our lim- 
its, specimens of which have been examined by your com- 
mittee, and they entertain little or no doubt that the ex- 
penses of a geological survey of the State would be re- 
paid with tenfold interest by the discoveries in the min- 
eralogical department— exposing to view a single bed of 
coal, of good quality and of ordinary extent, would do 
this. Important as we must admit the possession of min- 
erals and metals will be, by lessening the dependence 
and increasing the wealth and resources of our State, it 
is by no means the only or even the greatest benefit to 
be derived from a faithful discharge of the duties of the 
geologist. 

-By a knowledge of a correct analysis of the soil 
which he delves, the young farmer is placed at once in 
possession of that information which otherwise could be 
obtained after experimenting for years, at the expense 
of much money and valuable time. By this knowledge 
also, the scientific planter is not only enabled to preserve 
his land from the exhaustion of constant cultivation , 
but may annually increase its ability to sustain and nour- 
ish vegetation. An acquaintance" with the nature and 
peculiar properties of the original soil assists him in 
making a more judicious admixture with calcarious and 
other earths, and a better selection and application of 
nutritive and fertilizing substances. It will be the duty 
uf the geologist to point out the spot where these may be 
found. 



6$ 

' ; Almost every county in the State boasts ofits miner- 
al springs ; their waters will be analyzed, and their vir- 
tues made known, and their deleterious qualities detect- 
ed and exposed. In truth, if the execution of the work 
be entrusted to capable and faithful hands, the result can- 
not fail to be highly beneficial to the State and to the 
people." 

But we are occupying space needed for an ex- 
position of the great popular Remedy, par excel- 
lance, of that and many other years, for relieving 
both the people and the State from the terrible and 
all absorbing pecuniary pressure, with a view of 
which we propose to close this chapter and, at the 
same time, take leave of the year 1838. 

Among all the remedies for the times of which 
we write, then, proposed or adopted, the Union 
Bank project stands forth the most prominent, and 
the most remarkable in its results. The first Act 
to charter that institution had been passed in 1837, 
and, by its 47th section, enacted "that the fifth sec- 
tion of this act, whereby the faith of this State is 
pledged for the payment and redemption of the 
loan contemplated by this act, be referred to the 
next legislature of this State, in pursuance of the 
ninth section of the seventh article of the constitu- 
tion, and that this act be published" &c. 'for three 
months" &c. ; all of which having been accord- 
ingly done, the legislature of 1838, duly re-passed 
it by the heavy vote of 17 to 12 in the Senate, 
[Jour. 207] and 53 to 33 in the House [Jour. 187.] 

These majorities, though large, it will be seen 
were not quite large enough to have prevailed over 
a veto, and, upon his own doctrines, as set forth in 
his various veto messages, quoted in our fourth 
chapter, the omission by Gov. M'Nutt to veto this 
bill to charter the Union Bank must be regarded 
as his first, great false step. Its capital was so 
large as to add immensely to the chartered banking 
capital of the State, which those messages stated 
was entirely too large already, while it was beyond 
question a real estate bank, like those vetoed, which 
feature in them was another reason given for veto- 
ing them. The great distinguishing feature was that 



69 

the faith of the State was pledged for the Union 
Bank which, at that time, as the State had not yet 
broken her faith as to any of her pecuniary obli- 
gations, insured its getting the money proposed to 
be raised — a result not so certain with its compar- 
atively Liliputian rivals. Whether the Executive 
fell in with the general idea that it would be an im- 
mense advantage to the people and imperatively 
necessary to save them from ruin, to have this mo- 
ney, and the bank be a better one than any of the 
rest, does not appear; but it must be inferred that 
he did, or he would have vetoed the bill to charter 
it without a moment's hesitation. 

This general idea of the people seems to have been 
not only that it wasnecessary to have this money to 
save them from ruin, but that it must be had imme- 
diately, and that if it was delayed until the stock 
was taken up by individuals, it would be too late 
to do any good ; but being anxious to act prudent- 
ly and cautiously, a joint committee of the two 
houses was appointed and requested to report whe- 
ther the charter could be "amended by the legisla- 
ture and become a constitutional law, and if so, 
how far, and whether it would not be expedient so 
to amend the same as to convert said bank into an 
institution owned exclusively by the State of Mis- 
sissippi" [Sen. Jour. 68.] The report, to the 
Senate, was as follows: 

c: The committee are of opinion that it is competent 
for this legislature to alter and amend the details of the 
bill incorporating the subscribers to the Mississippi Un- 
ion Bank, passed at the last session of the legislature of 
tnis State, and pledging the faith of the State to secure 
the payment of the bouds proposed to be issued by said 
bank, but not so as to change the fundamental principles 
upon which the charter is based; and your committee 
are further of the opinion that amendments to said bill 
should only be proposed in a supplemental bill, and not 
to the original.*' [Sen. Jour. 103:] 

The report from the same joint committee to the 
House, was to the same effect, but not precisely in 
the same words. It is as follows : 

"The said committee are of the opinion that it is with- 
in the province of the Legislature to amend or change 



70 

the details of the said Mississippi Union Bank charter. 

<: But as that portion of the said charter, which relates 
to the subscribers or stockholders to the said institution, 
being the primary condition on which the faith of the 
State is to be pledged, and as such, constitutes a vital 
part of it, we have no power to change the same, unless 
it should be again submitted to the people for their sanc- 
tion, which would have the tendency to postpone at least 
for two years its consummation. This course, your com- 
mittee believe, would be directly at tear with the wishes of 
our constituents, and prove a serious inconvenience and 
injury to the people of this State, inasmuch as it must be 
apparent to all, that they are now writhing under an un- 
usual degree of pecuniary embarrassment, which re- 
quires prompt and efficient aid to relieve them from that 
extreme state of misfortune and distress, which the dis- 
cerning eye can easily detect in the gloomy vista of the 
future i and your committee fully believe that such an 
institution will facilitate the accomplishment of an ob- 
ject so desirable. 

"1 am further instructed to report, that the committee 
recommend to the house the policy of only amending 
the said charter, by way of supplemental act, in which, 
they believe all the amendments which may be deemed 
expedient by the Legislature can be embodied."— [House 
Journal p. 117.] 

An act supplementary to the charter was accor- 
dingly passed. It did not " change the fundamen- 
tal principles upon which the charter is based," by 
changing the institution into one "owned exclusive- 
ly by the State," but left it as before, a property 
bank, to the stock of which individuals had a right 
to subscribe, pledging their property to secure the 
subscription by mortgages, which mortgages still 
remained a security to the State for any amount for 
which she might become liable under the charter, 
except five millions of dollars, for which, by the 
supplemental bill, she was to give her bonds forth- 
with, and take stock. This was the change effec- 
ted by the supplemental bill, which does not in 
any manner interfere with the fifth section of the 
original act, which alone the Legislature of 1837 
thought necessary to refer to a succeeding Legis- 
lature, and which alone was so referred. — [Acts of 
1838, p. 32-3.] The question thus put to the 
people, under the constitutional provision in that 
behalf, was plainly whether the State should aid 



the people in their extremity, by giving its faith 
and credit by means of issuing its bonds to facili- 
tate a proposed bank in obtaining capital — in other 
words, should the money he borrowed or not ? — 
and the people answered, through their next legis- 
lature, (that of 1838) that the State should do so, 
and the money be borrowed, in the emphatic 
manner, and by the large vote we have seen above. 
This "fifth section" of the original act (Acts of 
1833, p. 14-15,) is simply in the following words, 
and as it includes the form of the bonds, which 
probably the great majority of the people have 
never seen, we give the whole of it. 

"That in order to facilitate the said Union Bank for 
the said loan of fifteen millions five hundred thousand 
dollars, the faith of this State be, and is hereby pledged, 
both for the security of the capital and interest, and that 
7500 bonds of $2000 each, to-wit : 1875 payable in twelve 
years; 1875 in fifteen years; 1875 in eighteen years; 
and 1875 in twenty years, and bearing interest at the 
rate of five per cent per annum, shall be signed by the 
Governor of the State to the order of the Mississippi 
Union Bank, countersigned by the State Treasurer, and 
under seal of the State; said bonds to be in the following 
words, viz : 

'•'82000. Know all men by these presents, that the 
State of Mississippi acknowledges to be indebted to 
the Mississippi Union Bank in the sum of two thousand 
dollars, which sum the said State of Mississippi pro- 
mises to pay in current money of the United States to the 
order of the president, directors and company in the 

year with interest at the rate of five per cent, 

per annum, payable half yearly, at the place named in 

the indorsement hereto, viz: on the of 

every year until the payment of the said principal sum : 
in testimony whereof, the Governor of the State of Mis- 
sissippi has signed, and the Treasurer of the State has 
countersigned these presents, and caused the seal of the 

State to be affixed thereto, at Jackson, this in the 

year of our Lord. 

GOVERNOR. 
TREASURER. 

This is the whole of the "fifth section," and it 
remained unrepealed and untouched by the Sup- 
plemental Act. The legislature of 1838 re-pass- 
ed, not only this "fifth section," but the whole ori- 
ginal act, without altering a word of it, and the 



72 

Governor approved it. The constitutional requi- 
sition was then complied with — the matter was ful- 
ly consummated. The act was the law of the 
State, like its companions in the statute book. 

But, as it stood, the law did not answer the pur- 
pose of its enactment, as every body understood 
that purpose — relief, and timely relief, to the peo- 
ple. Accordingly, a distinct and separate act was 
afterwards passed, altering the former so as to give 
that relief immediately ; it is true, by the same 
legislature, at the same session, but which legisla- 
ture had as much right to make the alteration as a 
future one would have had, and which, having 
been elected with an express view to the settlement 
of that question, must have been prepared to act 
precisely as its constituents desired. The plain, 
indisputable truth is — and every one who lived in 
the State at the time, and observed affairs about 
him, knows it to be such — that the people — the 
great masses — cared little or nothing about " the 
details" of the charter of the Union Bank — all 
they wanted was the money. They were in debt 
— almost every man in the State felt the pressure 
— they believed it to be a matter of infinite impor- 
tance, of salvation from ruin, to get money by 
means of this Union Bank and the pledge of the 
faith of the State, and cared little how it was done, 
so that it teas done and done quickly. It was per- 
ceived that it could be done immediately by the 
State pledging its credit, not for the full amount, 
but for a small part — less than a third of it— forth- 
with, instead of pledging it, dollar for dollar, as 
individuals subscribed for stock, as was originally 
proposed, and which would take time — precious 
time at such a juncture. 

The Supplemental Bill was the practical 
and effective means of expressing the wishes of 
the people in this respect, and it was early before 
both branches of the legislature, and most warmly 
urged on to its passage. It was one of the most 
popular measures ever before that body, as shown 



73 

by the vote upon it — singularly popular : for more 
members voted for it than for the original bill, and 
even Mr. Alsbury, who alone had joined his fel- 
low senator, Mr. Tucker, in protesting against the 
re-passage of the original bill in 1838, voted for 
the Supplement! The vote was 22 to 3 in the 
Senate, [Jour. 320,] and 55 to 22 in the House, 
[Jour. 329-30] 

Of the little minority in the Senate, it may be 
due to Mr. Tucker to state that he was one. Of 
the other two, one was a whig and we are unin- 
tbrmed of the politics of the other. Of the mi- 
nority in the house, fourteen (and it may be fif- 
teen) were whigs. The Democrats m the House 
then, who voted against the Supplemental 
now decried by their party as " unconstitutional, ; ' 
were only eight, and perhaps only seven, in num- 
ber. We take the politics of members of both 
Houses from their votes for United States Senator, 
[Sen. Jour. 170,] which probably was, as usual, a 
strict party vote. One member of each House 
who voted for the Supplemental bill did not vote in 
the senatorial election, which is the reason we can 
not be certain as to them. And the principal ob- 
jection may not have been to the bill itself, but on- 
ly to its title, as the same number (22) and nearly 
the same men, immediately afterwards voted to 
change its title from "An act Supplemental,' 5 &c, 
to " An act to amend" &c. 

So much for the legislature: now let us look at 
the Executive. 

The objection afterwards, and now made to this 
Supplemental bill is, that it is unconstitutional — a 
higher objection than was made in 1838 by Gov- 
ernor M'Nutt to any of the bank bills he vetoed, 
all of which are referred to in our fourth chapter. 
In his messages as to those, he gives no stronger 
reasons for the exeicise of that power, than his 
belief in the general impropriety and inutility of 
the measures. If his excellency so broadly inter- 
preted that executive right, and believed then in 

G 



74 

the absolute unconstitutionality of the Supplemen- 
tal Bill, there can be no excuse for his approving 
it, because it was his unquestioned duty to veto it. 
He is also deprived of even so imperfect an apol- 
ogy as saying it would have been useless, because 
of its having been passed in the first instance by a 
vote of more than two-thirds in ea<:h house; for 
he vetoed the amendment to the post note law, 
[House Jour. 431,] which had been passed by a 
still heavier collective majority of both Houses, 
to- wit : by a vote of 19 to 5 in the Senate [Journal 
340,] and of 47 to 9 in the House, [Jour. 398,] and 
which was immediately re-passed, over the veto, 
and became a law accordingly. — [Acts of 1838, 
p. 332.] His excellency did not veto the Supple- 
mental Bill: he signed it. 

No doubt whatever seems to have been enter- 
tained in 18S8, that the State had a right to issue 
the bonds. The re-passage of the fifth section of 
the original act, which was specially referred to 
the next legislature, it appears to have been thought, 
gave that right. That section says nothing of the 
time at which she was to do it, or of any security 
she was to take. Suppose the legislature of 1838 
had not passed the Supplemental Act, and the 
bonds had been issued and sold under the original 
act, but that, afterwards, another legislature had 
made the same alterations as made by the Supple- 
mental Act which now form the ground of the 
"constitutional" objections to paying the debt. 
The same objection to the act would have existed, 
but there could have been no pretence to make 
any body accountable but those who made the al- 
terations — not a shadow of a pretext to refuse to 
pay the bond holders: but, unfortunately for those 
who parted with their money for Mississippi's obli- 
gations, she chose (upon the unanimous recom- 
mendation of a legislative committee, which set 
forth the pressing necessity for immediate action. 
to save the people from impending ruin, under the 
sanction of sweeping majorities of a legislature 



75 

fresh from its constituents, and the deliberate ap- 
proval of the executive,) to make these alterations 
before she issued her bonds; and on this circum- 
stance, by a " constitutional " hair, hangs the stu- 
pendous tail of REPUDIATION ! 

The adoption of this doctrine having, in the eye 
of the world, whether with justice or not, placed the 
State, on that "bad eminence" where Milton places 
the devil, and being the work of the " Democratic 
Rule" exclusively, seems to demand some notice 
at our hands. If the reader, however, would like 
a " constitutional " argument upon it, he must look 
elsewhere for it. We have examined no "prece- 
dents" or "authorities," and have asked the "opin- 
ion" of no eminent lawyers upon that subject; and, 
fuithermore, have no particular desire that what 
we shall say about it may chance to coincide with 
any of these, and care not whether it may disagree 
with any, or all. The "learned in the law" might 
split hairs upon this question of constitutionality, 
as they have frequently done before on smaller 
matters, for ages, and after all, they could, in the 
view of Natural Justice, which necessarily must 
govern sovereignties in their transactions with 
strangers to their "constitutions," do nothing but 
show that, if the constitution was violated, those 
men who violated it by passing the Supplemental 
Bill, approving and signing it, and issuing the 
bonds under it, are accountable to the people — not 
chat a sovereign State ought to discredit her own, 
genuine seal, and refuse to pay debts she has con- 
tracted. Moreover, such a discussion could lead 
to no practical result; for if any Court in existence 
could decide the question, unless it could also en- 
force its judgment, with effect, its decision would 
be utterly idle. The people, in mass, whatever 
maybe their rights, alone have power, in the case, 
to enforce what they decide — a circumstance 
which, of itself, renders the question one of morals, 
and the debt a debt of honor. If these considera- 
tions fail to induce a "sovereign people" to comply 



76 

with their obligations, the injured party must re- 
main injured unless it can right itself by force. 
The law under which Mississippi went forth, in 
her sovereign capacity, and disposed of her bonds, 
is the law of the world, and is above the domestic 
constitutions or other laws of any one sovereignty, 
which, in the eye of the world, is but -a single mem- 
ber of the great family of nations, kingdoms and 
states; and it would disorganize the business of 
the world, overturn the law of nations, and bring 
Christendom back to a state of barbarity, were it 
admitted that a sovereignty might issue evidences 
of debt under the most solemn forms known among 
nations, and then refuse to pay, on the plea that 
she misunderstood her own domestic rules and 
regulations in respect to such matters, when she 
contracted the liability, but understands them per- 
fectly, and is sure she is right, when she refu.scs 
to pay them. 

The last annual message of the President of 
the United States, adduces the refusal of Mexico 
to pay her debt to the federal government as a 
sufficient cause for the existing war. Suppose 
that the only cause, and that Mexico should set up 
a constitutional objection to her contract to pay 
(and there is no doubt that legal ingenuity could 
pick out a quirk or two for her,) what satisfaction 
would that be to the United States, or those citizens 
of the latter to whom the Mexican indemnity is 
owing ? A Mississippi repudiator must admit that 
it would make the war unjust on the part of his 
own country, or be inconsistent with himself. On 
the other hand, all the rest of the world are agreed 
upon the justice of the rule which would author- 
ize the United States to compel Mexico to pay by 
force. 

If the constitution of Mississippi was violated, 
those who did the deed, and they alone, are respon- 
sible for it to the people, and should be held most 
strictly accountable. If they did it knowingly, 
and with a view to defraud those who might pur- 



?: 

-chase the bonds, they are too dishonest, and If un- 
ngly, and the unconstitutionality is noic as pal- 
pable as they pretend, they are too stupid to be 
•rusted by the people with their offices or money. 
The contrary course of pretending to appease the 
violated constitution by refusing to pay those who 
hold the bonds, and who had nothing to do with 
passing or approving the Supplemental Bill, and 
at the same time exalting and half deifying those 
who unblushingly charge themselves with having 
violated the constitution, and seem to glory in it, 
is one of the most unreasonable and flagitious out- 
rages ever perpetrated before the world by a peo- 
ple or party pretending to civilization, any "con- 
stitutions," "precedents" or "authorities" there may 

) the contrary notwithstanding. 
The true test of what is right and what o. 
to be done, every man may have the benefit of and 
apply to the question, "without money and without 
price," by a glance at that (to him) ever open 
book, his own heart. The name of that : 
Conscience. 

But the constitution! Excellent it maybe — 
capital rules of action it may furnish — but for ilfiV 
nssippi and her citizens, in or out of office, as Be- 
tween themselves; but what is her constitution :o 
foreigners to her soil, who never subscribed : 
provisions and owed it no allegiance, but have 
rules of action of their own and of their own choos- 
ing? She met them as a sovereignty, beyond her 
own borders and jurisdiction, as they met her, on 
the broad highway of the world, independently of 
the domestic laws of each other, but as honest and 
honorable traders, mutually governed by the great 
universal law. She pretended to an honest name 
and had a high reputation, throughout the civiliz- 
orld, for "faith and credit," and, under that 
name and reputation, tendered her bonds — signed 
by her Governor — countersigned by her Treasure r 
— sealed with her seal, sanctioned by tremendous 

? rities of her legislature — guaranties, all, lo 
g 2 



78 

every man and every nation, that all was right and, 
for that matter, "constitutional," behind those bonds, 
They took her bonds, and gave her for them that 
money which was to save her people from ruin, 
Every thing was right — her success in obtaining 
the loan for her distressed people was hailed with 
shouts from one extremity of the State to another, 
and all remained right until the money was spent 
and fay day had in part come, and then, all was 
wrong, and Repudiation raised its deformed and 
ghastly head. 

Thus, under the "Democratic Rule," with a 
grand flourish of trumpets about honor, and faith 
and credit, Mississippi strutted into debt, and thus, 
discarding all these, under the same Rule, would 
she sneak out of it! Was ever such democracy 
acknowledged for his own by a Jefferson, a Madi- 
son or a Jackson? No: it is spurious, illegiti- 
mate, bastard. The strongest modem democrats, 
out of the State, do not acknowledge it. As be- 
tween her and those who hold her bonds, they re- 
gard her simply as one party to a contract and the 
holders of her bonds the other — she the debtor, 
and they the creditor party — and, in this relation 
they stood, and still stand, before the country and 
the universe. She had the money, and she refus- 
es to return it. It requires no constitutional or 
legal learning to understand that proposition, or to 
know whether she is acting honestly or not. As 
yet, those bonds tell God's truth, and will until they 
are paid: "the State of Mississippi is indebted." 

Let the reader pause a moment and peruse again 
the copy of these bonds, given above, and then let 
him say who would not loan paltry dollars upon 
them. "The State of Mississippi acknowledg- 
es" — the then high-toned, honorable State of Mis- 
sissippi — she, against whom a charge of faithless- 
ness in her pecuniary engagements had never been 
breathed — whose glittering escutcheon glanced 
dazzlingly in the sun of heaven — whose banner 
streamed gaily and daringly to the breeze, guiltless 



79 

of spot or blemish— Me, "the STATE OF MIS- 
SISSIPPI, acknowledges to be INDEBTED." 

Why, whnt a dolt, fool or idiot must he have been 
who, having a paltry "two thousand dollars" to 
lend, would not have striven for one of her obliga- 
tions ! What miscreant "money king" would have 
dared to breathe the taunt, the insult, as the whole 
State, almost to a man, would then have considered 
it, that she might repudiate? None: the bonds 
were sold, at once, as a matter of course. 

But they were issued under the Supplemental 
Bill! What of it? The vote of the legislature 
for that bill was overwhelming; and, more — with 
the question of "constitutionality" opened before 
him, by its reference to a joint committee of the 
dature, that careful, cautious Executive, who 
was under oath to support the constitution, who was 
a lawyer and could understand it, and who had 
proved he was not afraid to veto, had "approved" 
and signed the Bill and, moreover, signed the 
Bonds; and, under his obligation to "take care that 
the laws be faithfully executed," saw that the treas- 
urer countersigned them and that the great seal of 
the State was affixed, and then issued them with 
his own, good, faithful, patriotic, right hand! 

With all these sanctions, where was the man 
bold enough to assert that the finely engraved 
words on the thin, delicate, paper — "The State 
of Mississippi acknowledges to be indebt- 
ed" — were but parts of a deliberate scheme to get 
his money and keep it? What money lender was 
to presume to go behind the seal of a sovereign 
State, affixed by the proper authorities, to look for 
the "constitutional" objections with which it is now 
sought to battle with the law of God, "pay ichai 
thou owest" and the law of Nature, "do as yetcould 
he done by?" Concealed in what fold of the 
seemingly spotless flag of the proud, young State 
was he to look for that opposing and dastardly 
motto, "get all you can and keep all you get?" 
By what authority was he to suppose that she was 



so 

then carrying out the first part of so vile a creed, 
and, under specious and false pretences, getting 2M 
she could, with a view of keeping it afterwards? 
It was too cool and deliberate an act of depravi- 
ty to be supposed by the most suspicious — it can- 
not be supposed now with the results before our 
eyes: and yet, if individuals who gave their aid, 
heart and hand, to this getting, now dare set up for 
repudiators, the question when and why they chang- 
ed their opinions of the "constitutionality" of the 
measure, should be sternly put and a direct answer 
forced from them by a people whose good name 
they have blasted, whose credit, public and private, 
they have prostrated, and whose State they have 
dishonored. If they cannot answer that question 
satisfactorily, every Mississippian has another to 
ask himself — have they any claim to political pow- 
er or emolument and can he do himself, his family 
or his State any credit by standing up before God 
and man and sanctioning all they have done, by- 
voting for them for offices of trust or profit? In 
answering, let him remember that to vote for them 
is not sustaining the constitution, but (if it has been 
violated) rewarding men for violating it, and that 
it must seem to the whole world like glorying in 
the chance to keep money unlawfully obtained. 



CHAPTER VII. 



The Executive message at the opening of the 
legislative session of 1839 shows no improve- 
ment in the monetary condition of the State. 
The banks seem still to have been deemed by the 
Governor the principal cause of this. He says 
[Sen. Jour. p. 7,] in speaking of the events of 
the past year, "the season was unpropitious to 
the growth of our great staple, and the cost of 
its production so much enhanced by the deprecia- 
tion of our currency as to leave but scant profits 
to the planter." He adds, however, [page 8.] 
"Most of our banks have resumed specie pay- 



81 

mentis, and the residue will be compelled to fol- 
low the example or to close their business." 
He says also, "every indication warrants us in 
expecting better times — confidence is nearly res- 
tored." His excellency, was mistaken, as has 
been his fate in all matters connected with the 
finances and currency. 

Events have proved that want of confidence 
had by no means reached its lowest point, and 
that this resumption of specie payments by some 
of the banks was altogether premature — forced 
on without reason and consequently temporary. 
It may be recollected that the bank commission- 
ers after making their examination of the con- 
dition of the banks, had reported to the legisla- 
ture the decided opinion, based on good grounds, 
that a resumption could not take place, with any 
prospect of permanency, until August 1839, and 
they were unquestionably right. Had the par- 
tial resumption spoken of by the Governor even 
been delayed until the date of his message (Jan- 
uary 1839) it could not have been of much long- 
er continuance, and it is doubtful whether, had 
the resumption not taken place until August 1839, 
as recommended by the commissioners, it could 
have been permanent, after the vast increase of 
banking capital chartered in 1838. Had they 
added, "provided no more banks are chartered, 
and there is no further legislative or executive 
interference with those which have resumed," 
they might now have been regarded pretty good 
prophets, at least as to those banks which did re- 
sume. As to the rest, all was wrong, and they 
must have exploded at all events. Prosecutions 
should have been commenced and their charters 
should have been declared forfeited, (with due 
regard to the rights of their creditors) a long 
time since. 

The public press which first denounced the 

existing abuses in the banking system and desig- 

« nated particular banks by name 3 w r as a whig pa- 



62 

per published in Madison county. The editor 
proposed to his brethren of the press of all polit- 
ical parties to expose all these abuses, indicating 
the institutions and the persons who perpetrated 
them. The democratic press winked at those 
which had committed the most flagitious viola- 
tions of charter, and it is a fact to be remember- 
ed that, when the utmost rigor of the law should 
have been most promptly administered, nearly 
all of those whose duty it was to attend to it 
were individually defending these particular and 
undoubted violators of their privileges, obtaining 
discounts from them, and thus aiding in flooding 
the State with their worthless rags. 

The whole banking system of the State was 
wrong — radically wrong — and the action of the 
people and of the government particularly, was 
and had been wrong for years previous to the 
first suspension of specie payments — wrong since 
the subversion of the influence of the old Terri- 
torial settlers who had managed, and were legiti- 
mate, bona fide stockholders in, the (Territorial) 
Bank of Mississippi, as were and have been many 
other parts of the State policy, under the over- 
acting enterprize of the new men who succeeded 
to power, w r hether democrats or whigs. 

In regard to this particular subject of banking, 
the change in the policy of the State is most 
marked. From an extreme caution in the grant- 
ing of banking privileges, perhaps unsurpassed 
by that of any State in the Union, Mississippi 
had become probably the most reckless of any 
before the chartering of the Union Bank, which, 
under the peculiar circumstances, must be re- 
garded as the crowning curse of excessive bank- 
ing and, per se, one of the most rash and sense- 
less of all mad projects in legislation. The floun* 
clering and plunging of the M'Nutt school of de- 
mocracy, like a harpooned whale, after sanction- 
ing it, can excite no feeling in the unprejudiced 
at this day but pity for the men, largely imbued 



83 

with contempt of their statesmanship ; for never 
have politicians proved themselves more pro- 
foundly ignorant of their business. 

From an examination of the annual message 
of the Governor in 1S39, the report of a joint 
committee of the legislature, reported to the 
Senate by Mr. P. W. Farrar, and to the House 
by Mr. R. C. Hancoc^ ,(now a candidate for 
Governor of the State) on the subject of the 
Union Bank, and the minority report of Mr. H. 
S. Foote, a member of the House from Hinds 
county, it will be seen that a great contrariety of 
opinion existed — the first, attacking almost every 
act of the Union Bank, the second excusing 
every act, and the third opposing the second, but 
not particularly agreeing with the first. Before 
analyzing these singular documents, a brief re- 
currence to plain and undeniable, but almost for- 
gotten facts, (not fully treated of in our preced- 
ing chapters and mostly occurring previous to 
the year 1838) elucidating the banking system 
of the State, is requisite, as better enabling the 
reader to judge of the wisdom and particularly 
the utility of the discussions and proposed meas- 
ures of the period. 

Under the Territorial government, the legisla- 
ture, in 1809, passed an act incorporating the 
stockholders of the "Bank of Mississippi," with 
a capital of $500,000. This bank went into 
operation in 1810, and continued in successful 
operation until 1817. It was the last bank south 
and west of New England to suspend specie pay- 
ments during the war, and among the first to re- 
sume after peace was established. In fact, it 
did not suspend until the gun-boat flotilla in Lake 
Ponchartrain was captured by the British fleet 
under Admiral Cochrane, and not until petitioned 
and solicited to do so, as a measure of "public 
good." 

In 1817 the people of Mississippi formed a State 
constitution and she was admitted into the Un- 



84 

ion. Among the first acts of her legislature, in 
the same year, was the establishment of a State 
Bank with a capital of three millions, of which 
the State reserved the right to subscribe for one 
fourth. The legislature of that day, with a wis- 
dom and foresight which will always redound to 
its credit, profiting by the experience of the ill 
effects of excessive banking, as exhibited in the 
banking systems of Kentucky and Ohio, were 
anxious to guard against similar results in Mis- 
sissippi. They therefore desired that there should 
be but one bank in the State, with the power to 
establish one or more branches. A compromise 
was suggested with the stockholders of the 
(Territorial) Bank of Mississippi, by which it 
was agreed that their capital and credit should 
be incorporated and their title merged in that of 
"the Bank of the State of Mississippi." 

This State bank was organized in 1817 and 
the State was pledged by its charter, that no oth- 
er bank should be incorporated during the exis- 
tence of that charter — that is to say, until after 
the 31st of December, 184C — and we presume 
there is no one who will not now admit that if 
no means had been found to circumvent this 
pledge, and the policy of the State at that time had 
continued to be its policy, a far different and bet- 
ter state of affairs would have existed at the 
present day than is now presented. 

This bank continued in successful and profita- 
ble operation until 1830. The State was a stock- 
holder to the extent of about $50,000, and re- 
ceived its semi-annual dividends, amounting on 
the average, to ten per cent, per annum ; and, at 
the winding up of the institution, received, in 
addition to the dividends, its entire capital sub- 
scribed and an extra dividend from the surplus 
profits, of six and a half per cent. 

In 1829 — and let the reader mark it — the ex- 
perience of the evils of excessive banking had 
lost its influence, and a strong desire was mani- 



85 

fested for more banking capital, " to develope 
more rapidly the resources of the State." In 
accordance with this desire, and in violation of 
the pledge of the State, that " no other bank 
should be incorporated during the existence of 
the Bank of the State of Mississippi," the legis- 
lature, in that year, chartered the Planters' Bank 
-with a capital of upwards of four millions, of 
which the State was privileged to subscribe for 
two millions. 

This act of the State cannot be defended . Her 
faith should have been held inviolate under any 
and all considerations, and she had plighted that, 
to the stockholders of the (Territorial) Bank of 
Mississippi, to the effect that no other bank 
should be chartered until 1841, if they would al- 
low their capital and credit to be incorporated, 
and their title merged in that of the Bank of the 
State of Mississippi. True, it is not marked with 
the meanness of the act of repudiation discussed 
in our last chapter— there was no refusal to pay the 
State's debts; but it opened the way to that exces- 
sive banking which has been so great a curse to 
her, and which, in its turn, led to that barefaced 
denial of her pecuniary obligations, which fol- 
lowed the mad scheme of chartering the Union 
Bank. A sovereign State broke her word, and 
she was stricken in her wealth and power. In- 
stead of atoning for that sin when the curse fell, 
and prudently and cautiously retracing her steps, 
demagogues entered her counsels and repudiated 
her just debts. A heavier curse fell: she was 
stricken more deeply and in a vital part — the 
tone of public morals sunk to a low ebb, and 
shame and obloquy and disgrace are the conse- 
quences. As yet, like Pharaoh, she hardeneth 
her heart, and the curse continues and will con- 
tinue, despite large crops and high prices, until 
the true principles of government vindicate them- 
selves. 

By the act incorporating the Planters' B r < 



86 

the State was authorized to issue bonds for two 
millions of dollars, bearing interest payable semi- 
annually. Five hundred thousand dollars in 
these bonds were issued, and sold at a premium, 
and the funds invested in the Planters' Bank, by 
which the State became a stockholder to the ex- 
tent of half a million, while the premium ob- 
tained and the semi-annual dividends were 
constituted a sinking fund under the management 
of the president and cashier of the bank and the 
auditor of public accounts of the State, as com- 
missioners, to be managed by them, and the 
amount accruing therefrom, was pledged by the 
act of incorporation "for the payment of the 
bonds and coupons issued by the State," to en- 
able her to become one of the corporators. 

A convention for altering and amending the 
constitution of the State assembled in 1831, and, 
in the new constitution formed by it, an article 
was embodied prohibiting the State from issuing 
bonds or borrowing money unless the act au- 
thorizing the same, should be submitted to the 
people for their approval, &c, but providing that 
nothing therein should be so construed as to pre- 
vent the Governor from issuing the bonds of the 
State for the further sum of one and a half mil- 
lions for the completion of the payment of the 
State subscription to the capital of the Planters' 
Bank; but that the Governor should, when called 
upon, issue such bonds. 

The Governor w r as called upon, and the bonds 
issued for one and a half millions, which were 
sold at a premium of 13^ per cent. The prin- 
cipal sum was invested in stock, by w r hich the 
State's subscription was completed, and the pre- 
mium went into the hands of the commissioners 
of the Sinking Fund, to be managed by them, 
with the surplus dividends, for the payment of 
the bonds and coupons as they became due. 

The stockholders of the Bank of the State of 
Mississippi deeming it unwise to come in conflict 



8? 

with the State authorities in contesting their 
rights, agreed to surrender their banking privile- 
ges on condition that they should be allowed un- 
til 1S37 to wind up their affairs. This was 
granted, but, by the time the Planters' Bank had 
got fully into operation, the legislature, being 
importuned by the people for more banking cap- 
ital, instituted an inquiry to ascertain whether 
the corporators of the Bank of the State of Mis- 
sissippi would not take back their charter with en- 
larged privileges, believing that " competition 
was as necessary in banking as in any other per- 
suit." This was declined in behalf of the State 
Bank, but most of the stockholders withdrew 
their capital and invested it in the Agricultural 
Bank of Mississippi, a new bank created to take 
the place of the Bank of the State of Missis- 
sippi. 

Here it should be noted that these two banks — 
viz : the Bank of the State and the Agricultural, 
were the only ones in which the capital, (or 
much the larger part thereof,) was held and 
owned by the citizens of the State, and that, of 
all those chartered subsequently, the stock was 
subscribed for, not for the legitimate purpose of 
receiving a percentage on real capital, for which 
the owners had no other or better use, but as 
matters of speculation, for the purpose of selling 
to Northern capitalists, or subscribed for, indi- 
rectly, by ihem. 

Subsequently to the chartering of the Agri- 
cultural Bank, the old and good policy of the 
State in regard to banks was utterly abandoned 
and many others were chartered, so that the evils 
of excessive banking which had been suffered by 
other States in the West were full upon the peo- 
ple of Mississippi. When the crisis came in 
1837, they all suspended specie payments as 
other banks did all over the Union, but in ad- 
vance of them : when the resumption took place, 
some of the Mississippi banks resumed, and 



88 

most of those which did resume, again, and final- 
ly, suspended in 1839 and 1840. 

The charters of nearly all the banks required 
them to loan at least one-half their capital on 
long loans, renewable for one or more years, at a 
higher rate of interest than was allowed on short 
paper. The temptation to invest largely in such 
loans could not well be resisted, backed, as it 
was, by the most urgent entreaties and flatter- 
ing representations of the applicants, and the re- 
peated declarations that any other sort of loans 
were of no use to the planters, but only subject- 
ed them to "the shaving operations of the com- 
mission merchants." When the revulsion came, 
these banks had no power to call in these long 
loans, and hence a continued suspension was un- 
avoidable. This, with the reasons in relation to 
the peculiar course of trade in Mississippi, as 
set forth in the Report of the Bank Commission- 
ers in 1838, will be found, we think, entirely 
conclusive upon the point that resumption should 
have taken place in this State later than in any 
State in the Union, and that the urgency of Gov- 
ernor M'Nutt and his adherents in forcing it on 
was utterly wrong, and the resumption in 1838 
altogether premature. An apt illustration of the 
resumption at that time, is afforded by the case 
of a convalescent invalid, who, too impatient to 
be confined long enough to recruit sufficient 
strength to venture abroad, does so at an im- 
mense sacrifice of such strength as he has re- 
covered, which produces a relapse more dangerous 
than the original attack, and terminates fatally. 

The great question for the violent advocates 
of an early resumption to answer is, whether 
they did not know that such must be the result, 
and did not endeavor to produce it. If they did, 
the people are entitled to know why they so en- 
deavored ; and if they did not, it is sufficiently 
plain that they were no statesmen, and entirely 
incompetent to be trusted with the political pow- 
er and influence they exercised* 



89 

The following is an extract from the Report 
of the Bank Commissioners in 1848, [Sen. Joui . 
129.] 

'•A view of the situation of the banks, is evidence suf- 
ficient that they are unable to resume now. The first 
i I July or August in any year is the most proper period 
to fix upon for resumption. The reason is obvious; we 
annually consume of the products of the West, the value 
of $3,500,000 in pork, corn, flour, bacon, beans, bagging, 
rope, horses and mules; while the whole amount of our 
exports in exchange is less than $500,000, and the 
immense balance must be paid in specie, or its equiv- 
alent, checks on the North. This trade, in which there 
is so little reciprocity, ceases about the 1 st of July: hence, 
that is the most proper period to fix upon for a resump- 
tion of specie payments. 

11 A large proportion of the assets of the banks falls due 
by the first of July next, but the amount that will be paid, 
fall short of the increase of circulation by the ad- 
vancements on cotton; therefore, the banks will not be 
in a better condition for resumption than now. An at- 
tempt to resume as early as January, 1839, would cer- 
tainly affect the prices, not only of the crop of J 38, but 
also that portion of the present crop that remains unsold, 
when the measure of resuming shall be resolved upon. 
It is equally certain, that a depreciation of our staple at 
home, will be followed by a still greater depreciation in 
Europe. Jt is undeniably true, that the bank cf Eng- 
land can, by refusing facilities to those connected with 
American trade, exercise a powerful influence over the 
American exports; and that she will do so to save her 
precious coins, we cannot doubt. 

"Another consequence of a resumption so early as 
January, 1839, would be the reduction of the aggregate 
bank circulation three millions, the balance against us 
in the Western trade; the effect of which would be felt 
by the whole community, on the prices of produce and 
labor. Debts which were contracted when the circulat- 
ing medium was redundant and prices high, could not 
be paid with a greatly reduced circulation and a conse- 
quent reduction in prices. 

"By fixing on July or August. '39, for a resumption cf 
specie payments, the pericdbeing distant, and there be- 
ing a certainty of our realizing a fair price for this and 
the greater part of next crop, we could gradually import 
•^necie without affecting the price of our own staple. 
We would thus enable ail our citizens to pay their debts 
more speedily and more certainly. The banks would 
not only have the proceeds of the crops of '37 and '38, 
but a portion of the crop of '39 to operate upon before 
there could be any general run upon them for -pecie. It 
a 2 



90 

v/Guld be extremely impolitic to force a resumption at 
an earlier period than July or August '39; but the banks 
can at that period resume with perfect safety to the 
community. 

Those who were frequently in the river towns 
at the time can well remember the constant run 
upon the banks during the resumption, by those 
who sold the articles of produce and stock enu- 
merated by the commissioners. Every flat-boat- 
man, who took the bank paper at all, made his 
daily demand just before three o'clock, and scarce- 
ly a steam-boat stopped an hour at the landings, 
during bank hours, which did not furnish one or 
more persons, either officers or passengers, to de- 
mand a redemption of more or less of their mo- 
ney, while the banks and brokers in New Orleans 
seemed to be bent upon drawing every dollar in 
specie from them. To this end, the bills of such 
banks in Mississippi as were paying specie were 
kept at a discount, bought up, and messengers 
regularly sent to draw the specie for them, a fact 
adverted to in the preamble to a counteracting 
resolution offered in the Senate by Mr. Grayson 
on the 2nd of February 1839. [Sen. Jour. 200.] 

Such w r as the condition cf affairs at the com- 
mencement of 1839. The Union Bank had been 
in operation several months and had "saved the 
people from ruin" to the extent of nearly three 
millions of dollars, so far as discounting that 
amount of paper, (a great deal of it very indiffer- 
ent) could do it, and the executive had already 
long disapproved of its management and now at- 
tacked it in a manner well calculated to injure its 
credit and, to all appearance, (now that weknow 
the result) breathing repudiation, which was to 
follow in due course, as a sort of counterpoise to 
the imprudence and folly of chartering it. At 
first, it was to overshadow, if not crush, the 
older banks at Natchez, which the governor con- 
sidered contumelious toward the commissioners, 
and now it was guilty of the same fault and placed 
in the same category. The war spirit was up 
against it: the Executive was its enemy. 



91 

CHAPTER VIII. 

The Executive war upon the Union Bank was 
fully declared in the message of Gov. M'Nutt 
delivered on the opening of the legislative ses- 
sion of 1S39. The following extract from it 
[Sen. Jour. p. 20] is an attack upon the validity 
of its first important act, viz : the sale of the 
bonds : 

{; On the day the books were opened at Jackson, I sub- 
scribed for fifty thousand shares of stock in the bank 
and executed bonds for five millions of dollars as soon 
as they were presented for my official signature, and 
delivered them to the managers of the bank. The doc- 
uments herewith submitted will place you in possession 
of the instructions of the Mississippi Union Bank to 
the commissioners appointed to negotiate the bonds and 
the terms of the sale. The charter of the bank provides 
that the bonds shall not be sold for less than their par 
value. They were dated on the fifth, sixth, seventh, 
eighth, and ninth days of June A. D. 1S38 and payable 
in twelve and twenty years from the fifth day of Febru- 
ary 1838, and sold to Nicholas Biddle,Esq., on the eigh- 
teenth day of August 1838, for five millions of dollars, 
lawful money of the United States payable in five equal 
instalments of one million of dollars each, on the first 
J .ay of November 1838 and on the first days of January, 
March, May, and July 1839. The bonds bear interest 
from the date thereof and the bank has already paid one 
hundred thousand dollars of interest thereon. Inas- 
much as the bonds were sold on credit and interest ac- 
crued from their date, it is certain that they were sold 
for less than their par value. The bank has heretofore 
paid interest on the sum of five millions of dollars for 
the use of one million, and will have to pay interest on 
more money than it has received until the first of July 
next. The commissioners, in the sale of the bonds, ex- 
ceeded their instructions, but no doubt obtained as much 
for them as could have been had at the time of the sale. 
An anxious desire to place the bank into speedy opera- 
tion was certainly commendable, but at the same time, 
no violation of the charter should have been sanctioned.' 5 

About a fortnight afterwards, "the joint com- 
mittee appointed to examine the affairs of the 
Mississippi Union Bank, in conformity to the in- 
structions of both branches of the legislature" 
made a Report [Sen. Jour. 134] which is signed 
by Mr. P. \V. Farrar on the part of the Senate, 
and Mr. R. C Hancock on the part of the House. 



92 

This document treats the subject of the sale 01 
the bonds quite differently from the Executive. 
It says : 

"Contrary to the expectation of every one familiar 
with the distressed condition of the stock market, a ne- 
gotiation of five millions of the bonds was effected by 
the commissioners, highly advantageous to the State and 
the bank) and in accoi dance with the injunctions of the 
charter , requiring them to be sold at far value. A sale 
reflecting the highest credit upon the commissioners and 
bringing timely aid to an embarrassed community." 

The four first of these 60 day instalments 
were payable at the city of New Orleans and 
the last at the city of Natchez, in gold and sil- 
ver, or their equivalent. The committee say of 
this: 

"The trade of our State generally ruling in favor of 
New Orleans, where the four first instalments are made 
payable, and there being large balances against our State 
in that city, the bank, by receiving a moderate premium 
on the checks drawn against these instalments, has ena- 
bled our citizens, at a low rate of exchange, to liquidate a 
great portion of their foreign debt, and at the same time, 
has realized, herself, a profit on the transaction, greater 
than the difference of interest on the bonds (paid by the 
bank) while the instalments without interest are matur- 
ing: the result following, that the proceeds of the sale 
of the State bonds, in reality, amount to more than their 
par value. Already two of the instalments have been 
promptly met by the purchaser of the bonds, and the 
bank has been permitted to draw largely on the March 
instalment with a like profit on the exchange drawn 
against it. In the face of these results, a doubt cannot 
be entertained but that the sale of the bonds has been 
made in strict conformity with the letter of instructions 
from the board of managers, and in accordance with the 
injunctions of the charter. " 

To recur to the Governor's message : we next 
note a complaint that the Union Bank [Sen. Jour. 
28] has refused to suffer its affairs to be examin- 
ed by the bank commissioners. It is stated that 
this refusal was on the "flimsy" pretext that the 
minds of the commissioners were biased. Messrs. 
Farrar and Hancock tell an entirely different 
story. They say [Sen. Jour. p. 141.] 

"The grounds upon which the board of managers re- 
fused this examination, and by them stated to the com- 
mittee., rest mainly upon the "denial of any one beinc 



9-3 

authorized to make an examination oi the bank but a 
committee of the Legislature, as specifically provided 
for in the 24th section of the charter.^ 

They state also [p. 134] that the committee 
was "politely received" by the president of the 
bank, who readily afforded them free access to 
the books, &c, and personal information, &c, 
and add : 

"And here, the committee take occasion to commend 
the frank, open and unhesitating disposition manifested 
by the president to them during their protracted sitting, 
when he was called upon for information upon every 
subject of inquiry by the committee:" 

A matter which is attempted to be most se- 
verely satirized by the "minority of one," Mr. 
H. S. Foote, in his counter Report [House Jour, 
p. 208.] 

Another charge made by the Governor in his 
message is the issuance of post notes by the Un- 
ion Bank. [Sen. Jour. 28.] The committee 
again disagree with his excellency as folio wsi 
[Sen. Jour. 136.] 

" On the 27th September last, the board of managers, 
with the view of responding to the pressing wants of the 
community, commenced discounts on personal security 
and on short dates—- having previously determined upon 
issuing post notes payable on the first of August. 1839. 
The question arising in the committee, as to the right as 
well as the propriety of the bank making such issues, the 
committee decided, after a deliberate discussion of the 
question, ' That there was nothing in the charter of the 
Union Bank that inhibited them from issuing post notes, 
and that at the time, and in the peculiar conjunction in 
the monied affairs of the country, the course of the bank 
was warranted 1x)th by expediency and sound policy.' 
At this time, no bank in the Southwestern States was 
redeeming its circulation with specie, or had concluded 
any arrangements to resume at a specific day. Most of 
our own State banks were by violent contractions, prepar- 
ing to call in their debts, and withdraw their notes, leav- 
ing the community scarcely any circulating medium to 
answer the public wants. The insatiate creditor from 
abroad, and executions at home, were pressing the coun- 
try, and the condition of things called loudly for relief. 
Appeals were made in vain to the banking institutions 
of the State, and they were unable, from their crippled 
situation, to afford that relief. The only stay againsi 
such a condition of things, was the hope of something to 



94 

be done by the Union Bank, an institution just called 
into being with the view of making the landed estates 
of the country available and productive, reduce the rate 
of interest, and alleviate the embarrassment of the State. 

"The Bank could not hesitate in her course, and re- 
sorted to the most effectual means within her power con- 
sistent with her own safety. For the bank, at such a 
critical period, to have issued notes on demand, or paya- 
ble at a very short time, would have been a most suicidal 
step." 

It is to be presumed this reasoning, and much 
more which is added to it, was entirely lost up- 
on the Executive, who never seemed to think 
any thing of a bank pursuing a course "consis- 
tent with her own safety" or taking a "suicidal 
step." His demands were generally for impossi- 
bilities, and for "the people" versus "the banks." 

Another complaint made by the Governor in 
his message is that the Union Bank has failed 
to establish her branches, which is duly met and 
excused by Messrs. Farrar and Hancock. But 
says his excellency [Sen. Jour. p. 29.1 

" These violations of the letter and spirit of the charter 
dwindle into comparative insignificance, when placed 
by the side of the monstrous assumption of power on the 
part of the bank in seeking to monopolize the cotton crop 
of the State, and becoming a factor and shipper of our 
great staple. ******* With a capital of 
fifteen and a half millions of dollars, the Mississippi 
Union Bank, if suffered to do so, could monopolize the 
whole cotton crop of the State and every article of pro- 
duce and merchandize, depopulate our towns, prostrate 
our merchants, and crush our planters.' 5 

His excellency at this point must have felt se- 
verely the impropriety of putting. such a " mon- 
ster" in operation by approving and signing the 
charter and supplemental bill. Messrs. Farrar 
and Hancock, however, seem to think this is 
really "making a mountain out of a mole hill." 
They say [Sen. Jour. 138.] 

" Some objections arising in the committee as to the 
right of the bank to take cotton securities on her loans, 
the subject was duly deliberated upon, and, after an at- 
tentive investigation of the powers granted by the ninth 
and forty-fifth sections of the original bill, (charter,) we 
were of opinion that they are clearly authorized by the 
charter to take that description of securities." 



They further say, in relation to the sale of the 
cotton received by the bank : 

U A11 the benefit of exchange, domestic and foreign, 
goes to the use of the planter, and no charges, commis- 
sions or factorage of any description, accrue to the bank- 
by the operation." 

We will conclude our extracts from the report 
of Messrs. Farrar and Hancock with two more : 
" Your committee cannot refrain from applauding the 
eeal and spirit of candor that animated the board in the 
tedious task of organizing the institution, and which 
manifested itself in all of their subsequent and multifa- 
rious duties, and feel a pride in being able to testify that 
the board of managers have shown, in every attitude in 
which they were placed, a painful anxiety to pursue the 
charter of the bank to the letter, and perform their duties 
with the most scrupulous fidelity." [Sen. Jour. 134.] 

The committee conclude their Report as fol- 
lows : 

:: Vigilant as we profess to have been, we have seen 
nothing to censure oranimadvert upon, but believe that 
the business of the bank has been conducted in a spirit of 
fairness to every section of the State, and with an ability 
that merits our commendation." [Page 143.] 

The distinguished democrats and repudiators 
who were of the majority of this joint committee, 
were Messrs. Tucker and Augustus of the Sen- 
ate, and Messrs. Hancock and Roberts of the 
House ; the Union Bank still being very popular 
with that party. Mr. Tucker has since been 
Governor of the State, and approved the repudi- 
ating resolutions in 1842 — Mr. Hancock, who 
voted for them, is now a candidate for Governor, 
and Mr. Roberts, who also voted for them, is in 
Congress. The minority (of one) Mr. Foote, 
of the House, is now a Senator elect of the Uni- 
ted States. The minority report of the latter 
gentleman, occupies no less than thirty pages of 
the House Journal of 1839, and is of so peculiar 
a character that we very much regret that its 
great length precludes us from presenting the 
whole of it to our readers. We shall however, 
advert briefly to some portions of it, and mako 
some extracts. 

Upwards of three pages are devoted to a criti- 
cism upon the majority's brief account of their 



96 

reception by the officers of the bank. "The un- 
dersigned, 7 ' says the Report, "has no painful dis- 
satisfaction connected with the manner of recep- 
tion, and, if he-had, his own self respect would 
effectually restrain its expression." (The italics 
are as we find them.) In taking leave of the 
"reception," these words are used ; "The un- 
dersigned then, declines now and forever, all 
comment upon the point in question — neither as- 
serting nor denying aught in reference to a matter 
so supremely trivial." [House Jour, 210.] 

"The undersigned" then expresses the opinion 
that the committee had not had time "to do any 
thing worthy ef elaborate exhibition," stating 
that it had to meet at nights, "after the labors 
and anxieties of legislative service during the 
day had been endured, amidst weather, too, in 
the highest degree unpropitious." He however 
"embraces this opportunity of avowing his full 
confidence in the stability of the institution^ &c, 
and further avows his opinion that "there is no- 
thing to authorize a suspicion of corruption in 
any of those who hold authority over the insti- 
tution." | House Jour. 211.] 

The expressions of the majority of the com- 
mittee as to the anxiety of the managers to pur- 
sue the letter of their charter, next comes un- 
der the satirical lash of Mr. Foote, which leads 
us to the specific charges made by him against 
the bank. These are, generally, reiterations of 
those made by the Governor, some of them illu- 
minated by a very bright effulgence of legal il- 
lustration : for instance, it is said, in relation to 
the establishment of the branches, that, "to use 
a phrase of the common law, all the candles should 
be lighted together." We are informed [House 
Jour. 216,] that "the undersigned is absolutely 
awe struck at the hideous picture of ills to come 
which he has deemed it his solemn duty thus to 
bring to view" — and this is followed by an opi- 
nion [page 217,] which time has, unfortunately, 



97 

proved to have been erroneous, but which it is 
important to remember as coming from a leading 
member of the democratic party, now a repudia- 
tor of the Union Bank bonds. It is as follows : 

"That the bank will lose any very large amount by 
the illegal transactions exposed, the undersigned hopes 
will not be the case; but that hope, he is constrained to 
confess, is founded upon the general high sense of honor- 
pervading our ichoie population and the lofty indisposition 
almost universally prevailing among us not to invoke the aid 
of law in resistance of a claim of unquestionable justice ." 

It may be profitable to inquire here, by what 
strange change in the people, the State herself 
has most meanly attempted to "invoke the aid of 
law" — and law, at once, the most arbitrary 
and doubtful, — "in resistance of a claim of un- 
questionable justice" — to-wit: her debt to the 
holders of the Union Bank bonds — and again, in 
freeing bank debtors generally, by two special 
acts, from their liabilities? Moreover, how 
came it to pass that this same distinguished dem- 
ocrat, Mr. Henry S. Foote,now a Senator elect of 
the United States, sustains these odious invoca- 
tions of law, in resistance of these plain claims 
of natural justice — claims so plain that every boy 
of twelve will pronounce them to be such, the 
moment they are stated to him ? 

Another attempt is made to show the issuance 
cf post notes by the bank to be inconflict with the 
provision of the charter against suspending spe- 
cie payment, by this ingenious argument : [page 
222,] "The money promised on the face of a 
post note to be paid, is assuredly suspended from 
payment until the arrival of a particular day, or 
until the lapse of a specified period of time." 

Mr. Foote's objections are, however, to a 
"post note system," and, not to post notes being 
issued on particular occasions; for, notwithstand- 
ing the alledged unconstitutionality, he even re- 
commends their issuance for particular periods. 
As to the former, the system, he uses the follow- 
ing very strong language : 
i 



98 

"The employment of post notes as an exclusive, sys- 
tematic and permanent currency, would, in the judg- 
ment of the undersigned, be an all blasting evil, more 
intolerable than any which the justice of Heaven or the 
tyranny of man, has ever yet inflicted upon a free peo- 
ple." [page 226.] 

The next words are as follows : 
The undersigned does not hesitate, though, to declare 
it to be his opinion that it will be both practicable and 
highly politic for the Legislature of the State to admin- 
ister all proper aid to the Union Bank at this time, in 
order to enable her to realize as soon as possible the 
whole amount of her capital and to expand her issues as 
far as her own safety will allow, with a view to meeting 
the pressing emergencies of the times. 11 

The meaning of this is more fully stated af- 
terwards, and after stating that "the undersigned 
was never one of those who doubted the sale of 
that portion of the bonds already disposed of to 
Nicholas Biddle, Esq.," though he did not think 
it a very surprising matter that the sale was 
made. We quote from pages 227 and 228. 

"All Europe knows, or at least every man engaged in 
buying and selling of stocks is bound to know, that these 
bonds of the State of Mississippi constitute well nigh 
the best stock in the world. Mr. Biddle knew it, or he 
would not have purchased the bonds: it was well known 
in London, else Mr. Biddle would not have been able to 
sell them at an advance. The commissioners had not 
time last summer to make an experiment upon the Eu- 
ropean market. Perhaps it is well enough they had not . 
The rest of the bonds, though, going to Europe under 
the voucher of Nicholas Biddle, now at least secured, 
might be expected to sell at once; yes, they would be 
eagerly grasped at either in London or Amsterdam. — 
Why, then, should the legislature of the State, with the 
co-operation of his excellency, the Governor, not imme- 
diately enter upon the legislative steps to prepare the bonds 
for sale and provide for their sale without delay 1 As 
soon as commissioners of approved fitness and exalted 
character shall be known to be on their way across the 
Atlantic, a sale of the bonds may almost be considered 
as already effected ; for, that the sale would be accom- 
plished, the undersigned is well assured there is no room 
for doubt. The Union Bank, then, in anticipation of 
the proceeds of the sale, might, very providentially, issw. 
post notes to a sufficient extent to relieve the pressure now 
reigning in our money market. Such a step she would, 
as the undersigned is convinced, have a right to do un- 
der the charter; such a proceeding, so guarded, aad s 



99 

sustained, would command confidence and approbation 
every where; and even those who consider a mere post, 
note system objectionable, a system built on nothing, ex- 
iting merely in the air, and feeding on the foul vapors 
which exhale from the styes of bloated and fraudful 
speculation, would kail the emission of sack a currency 
is with the highest rejoicing." 
The least we can say of this minority report 
is that it is a strange medley of contrarieties. Its 
author seems to agree with the Governor and to 
disagree with him — to accuse the managers of the 
bank and the commissioners for the sale of the 
bonds, and to excuse them — to consider every act 
of the managers unconstitutional and to entrust 
them with further powers and more money — to 
give to every proceeding, even by ingenious soph- 
istry, the appearance of a violation of the char- 
ter or the constitution of the State, as it would 
seem, to show how easy it would be "to invoke 
the aid of law in resistance of a claim of unques- 
tionable justice," and to afford further facilities 
to the institution to continue the same practices 
upon a larger scale. The portion of it most wor- 
thy of remembrance, is that which urges the im- 
mediate empowering of commissioners to obtain 
ten and a half millions more of money, and the 
issuance of post notes by the bank to that im- 
mense amount in anticipation of getting it. — 
What was the exact object of this report, it is 
very difficult to say. The managers and com- 
missioners have done "grievous wrongs" — the 
former have violated the constitution and the 
charter in a fatal manner, and the latter, both of 
these and the letter of their instructions from the 
managers; all with their eyes open, and yet they 
are all worthy of "the Undersigned's" highest 
consideration. They are stabbed in vital parts 
as public men, and smiled upon most courteous- 
ly at the same time. At least, so it must seem 
to an unprejudiced reader, and if the object was 
not to castigate them, personally, it cannot even 
be guessed what it was. It reminds one con- 



100 

stantly of those ingenious charges made by mem- 
bers of Congress against each other, which, at 
the first glance, seem to assail motives, afld^ on 
a demand or without it, are explained away into 
the most unmitigated respect on the part of the 
accusers, for both the talents and the honor of 
the accused. On its face, then, it amounts to 
nothing; spurning, for the whole people, the idea 
of taking advantage of any law for the purpose 
of resisting the payment of just debts, and show- 
ing them, to the very citing of legal decisions, 
how it may be done, &c, &c. 

With these remarks, we leave the subject, 
merely asking our readers to bear this Report of 
the minority of one in mind until, in the regular 
progress of our narration of events, we shall 
reach the proceedings of the "Democratic Rule," 
occurring between 1840 and 1845. 

It may appear to the reader that we are devot- 
ing much space to the subject of banks: we are ? 
however, but following the spirit of the docu- 
ments from which we draw our information. 
The Governor's message, for example, occupies 
about twenty-seven pages of the Senate Journal 
of 1839, and of these, besides many other refer- 
ences to those institutions, ten pages are devoted 
to them exclusively, [Sen. Jour. 21 to 31. j 
Besides this, there is another message in relation 
to banks [House Jour. 116] which, with the ac- 
companying correspondence, occupies some tour- 
teen pages more. Of the first message, much 
attention is bestowed on the Union Bank. The 
Planters' and Agricultural next come in for their 
share and they are berated pretty soundly, though, 
by way of preface, [Sen. Jour. 21] it is worthy 
of note that Mr. M'Nutt declares : 

"I am not opposed to well regulated and honestly con- 
ducted Slate banks: in many respects, they are highly 
itseful-~lhey facilitate exchange operations, enable the 
industrious and enterprising merchant to cany on his bu- 
siness, and advance the planting interest by furnishing 
means to bring a greater quantity oj land into cultivation* 



101 

by the anticipation of the crops of the producers. They 
also afford a safe and profitable investment for the money 
of the capitalists, and, if prudently managed, are highly 
useful to the community ." 

The "anti-republican tendencies of moneyed 
associations of wealth" are then expatiated upon, 
and it is recommended that they be taxed, and 
arguments, intended to show that charters are not 
contracts and maybe repealed, follow. " Monop- 
olies and exclusive privileges," it is asserted, 
4i should be put down." In case the legislature 
are not convinced of the right to repeal, "an in- 
formation in the nature of a quo warranto," it is 
suggested, "would bring the question of forfeit- 
ure before the judicial tribunals," and it is fur- 
ther stated that "should the courts declare their 
charters forfeited, the stockholders would be the 
only sufferers, for the companies could not sue or 
collect their debts." It is recommended that a 
general law should be passed putting all the banks 
under certain restrictions and, unless the stock- 
holders assent to it, to commence judicial proceed- 
ings. In order that these prosecutions should be 
vigorous, it is recommended that assistant coun- 
sel be employed to aid the attorney general, &c 
No idea of the unconstitutionality of the act 
supplemental to the charter of the Union Bank 
seems to have been entertained up to the date of 
this message ; for we find in it a proposition to 
amend the charter again, and in such a way as to 
"secure to the State a controlling influence over 
the institution." JN either was there any idea of 
repudiation expressed. On the contrary, we find 
the following : 

• : The faith of the Slate is pledged for the redemption 
of two millions of dollars of bonds sold to take stock in 
the Planters' bank and for the whole of the capital of the 
Union bank. A just regard for the honor of the State 
demands that those institutions should be managed with 
great prudence, in order that ample prevision be made 
for the punctual payment of the interest, and of the bonds 
■■( maturity." [Sen. Jour. 28.] 
It would seem that, at this time, the various 
i 2 



102 

distinguished members of the Mississippi democ- 
racy, whose cries of "payment" and "honor" 
served them so well as arguments against the 
banks in which the State was interested, could 
not have had a suspicion of the change that was 
to come over them. The following quotation 
made by his excellency in relation to corporators 
"in every age" [p. 27] may perhaps account for 
it — "we have the authority of Holy Writ," says 
he, "for asserting that 'the heart of man is deceit- 
ful above all things.' " 



CHAPTER IX. 

The finances of the State government in 1839 
were in no better condition, according to the 
public documents of the time, than were those 
of the people, whom the Union Bank was at- 
tempting to "save from ruin." Mr. Phillips, 
the State Treasurer, had died, and Mr. J. A. Van 
Hoesen was appointed to fill the vacancy, and 
served until the election of Mr. Silas Brown, 
who reported that he "could not ascertain the 
true situation of the late Treasurer's books." 
[Message of the Governor. Sen. Jour. 18.] A 
continuation of the old story of 1838. 

It is stated [p. 31] that the total receipts into 
the treasury from the 7th December, '37, to the 
31st Dec, '38, amounted to $196,919 96-100, 
and the disbursements to $350,644 19-100 — 
showing an excess of expenditures over receipts 
of upwards of one hundred and fifty thousand 
dollars. About six thousand five hundred dol- 
lars of these receipts were for account of the 
literary fund, and about six thousand for account 
of the three per cent, fund; making between 
twelve and thirteen thousand dollars which could 
not be drawn out of the treasury for the ordinary- 
expenses of the government. 

Complaint is made of the failure of tax col- 
lectors to pay over their collections. Besides 



103 
this, the executive message sent to the legisla- 
ture at the commencement of the session of 1S39 
plainly reveals some matters which appear to 
have been merely surmised in 1S3S. Speaking 
of the "late Auditor, John H Mallory," it says : 

"It appears that he is a defaulter to the amount of 
^54,079 96-100— all, except $230 58-100, on account of 
town lots and the three per cent., seminary and sinking 
funds. ******* The 
trust reposed hasbeen sadly abused, and he has been en- 
abled, thus long, to conceal his defalcations in conse- 
quence of being most unwisely authorized to receive 
money which should have been audited and paid into 
the State Treasury in the usual manner." [Sen. Jour. 15.] 

It is further stated that a large amount of the 
revenue had been received in depreciated bank 
paper, and there is an amusing correspondence 
submitted to the legislature [House Jour. 124-5] 
between the Executive and the President of the 
Brandon Bank, in relation to the redemption of 
the paper of that flourishing institution held by 
the State. Some of this "Brandon money," it 
seems, was received through the branch of the 
Planters' Bank at Jackson, and, in the corres- 
pondence of the Executive with the mother 
bank at Natchez, some sentences occur w r hieh 
are worthy of note in these days of repudiation : 
for example, the following : 

"The Stale owns more than one half of the slock in 
the Planters' Bank, and it is not Jar wish to defraud her 
creditors by paying them of! in depreciated paper, worth 
lifty cents in the dollar, in order to obtain large dividends 
on her stock." [House Jour. 119.] 

"Her creditors" would now like "fifty cents 
in the dollar" much better than what is tendered 
them by the democracy in their present state of 
"progress," viz : unqualified repudiation of the 
whole debt. The following extract is from an- 
other letter of the governor to the cashier of the 
Planters' Bank. [House Jour. 122.] 

"I assure you it is not my wish to embarrass the oper- 
ations of your bank at this juncture ; for your efforts to 
restore to the country a sound currency are deserving 
of all praise and meet my unqualified approbation." 

It is a pity they did not meet the approbation 
of those who thought the resumption of specie 



104 

payments, to which this undoubtedly refers, too 
early to be permanent, and who were, as time 
has proved, quite right in their opinion. 

To recur to the Governor's message, another 
passage claims our attention. It may be found 
in the Senate Journal, ["p. 33] and is as follows: 

"At the January session, 1837, the public printers. 
Messrs. G. R. and J. S. Fall, were authorized to reprint 
the acts of a public nature passed by the legislature since 
the publication of the revised code in 1823; and, at the 
April session, 1837, the sum of $4,500 was advanced 
them on account of the work". At the last session, they 
received an additional advance of $700, and the further 
sum of five thousand dollars was appropriated to be paid 
to G. R. Fall on his delivering 2500 copies of the said 
statutes to the Secretary of State j provided the Execu- 
tive should first certify that the laws have been all re- 
printed and the contract faithfully executed. Having 
ascertained last spring that the Messrs. Fall had failed to 
furnish funds to the printer engaged at the work, accord- 
ing to contract, and that it would not be executed on their 
account, I directed Mr. Toy to proceed with the publica- 
tion, and that I would pay him a reasonable price for the 
same on delivery. I also instructed him to include in 
the volume a reprint of the acts of a public nature pass- 
ed at the April session, 1837, and the January session, 
1838, &c. 

"The total cost [page 34] of 2250 copies, in Baltimore, 
will not vary much from four thousand dollars. Freight.' 
insurance and other incidental charges will have to be 
paid in addition," &c, &c. 

There is nothing in the message in this con- 
nexion about "the suspension of our banks 57 
having "rendered Mississippi funds unavailable 
in the North," which is complained of by Mr. 
G. R. Fall in his communication to the legisla- 
ture in 1838, quoted in our second chapter, and 
whereupon he received the second appropriation 
of $700 ; and it was left to the imagination of 
those to whom the message was addressed to 
conceive whether there was any defalcation on 
the part of the State printers. The Governor 
says "the total cost will not vary much from 
$4000," exclusive of freight &c, and asks to be 
allowed, to use for paying it, as much as may be 
requisite of the $5000 appropriated to be paid 
on the contingency of the delivery of the book. 



105 

Mr. Fall stated to the legislature in 1S38, [vide 
chapter u, ante] that the $4500 first appropriat- 
ed had been "applied to the purposes for which 
it was intended," but that it "would not cover the 
expenses of the printing," and $700 more, mak- 
ing $5200 in all, was furnished him by the legis- 
lature. The Governor requires about $4000 
more, and says the Messrs. Fall had not paid 
the printer of the book according to contract and 
that it would not be finished on their account. 
Yet, that thera was any positive defalcation on 
the part of the Messrs. Fall is not to be presumed j 
for ft must be inferred that so plain-spoken a 
statesman as Mr. M'Nutt would, in such case, 
have said so in unequivocal language. From hi& 
plain dealing, with the offence of Mr. Mai lory 7 
we must take it for granted that the funds supplied 
the Messrs. Fall must, as Mr. G. R. Fall says, 
have been "applied to the purposes intended," 
and that there was some trifling part of the con- 
tract between them and the man who printed the 
book in Baltimore, misunderstood, and that, there- 
fore, the latter would not deliver the work ore 
their account. The seeming contradiction by the 
Governor, in his message, of the statement of 
Mr. G. R. Fall to the legislature in 1838, that 
the funds had been applied, may have been a 
mere slip of the pen, because His Excellency, 
as it may have been perceived, was not an officer 
given to the pleasant sort of satire which distin- 
guishes the report of Mr. Auditor Sanders, quo- 
ted in our second chapter, in which he says, in 
relation to Mr. Mallory, "it is probably necessa- 
ry that I should inform your honorable body that 
indisposition has prevented my honorable prede- 
cessor from arranging the books of the office of 
Auditor of Public Accounts in the manner he 
would desire to hand them over to his successor." 
The book therefore cost the enormous sum of nine 
thousand two hundred dollars, exclusive of the 
cost of transportation, insurance, &c. ? &c. 



106 

It is also stated that the taxes required to be 
paid by auctioneers "failed to reach the treasury ? " 
and, after these various illustrations of the man- 
ner in which the monetary affairs of the State 
were managed, (and many others like them could 
be given) it cannot excite much wonder to find 
[Sen. Jour. 18] that "the annual expenditures 
far exceed the receipts into the treasury," nor is 
it strange that the idea that "retrenchment, im- 
provement in the collection of the revenue, or 
additional taxation, must be resorted to," should 
have suggested itself to the mind of the execu- 
tive. 

The defalcations of the auditor and the tax- 
collectors, generally, seem also to have had an in- 
fluence in the executive recommendation [Sen. 
Jour. p. 16.] that the legislature should seriously 
consider "whether the embezzlement of the pub- 
lic money should not be made felony and punish- 
able by imprisonment in the State prison." 

At page 20 of the Senate Journal, we find the 
following statement of the State debt, &c. We 
italicise parts we wish the reader to note. 

•''The State Debt now amounts to the sum of $382,- 
335 30, deposited by the general government, and which 
is liable at any time to be recalled — two millions of dollars , 
in six per cent bonds, sold by the State to pay for stock 
to that amount in the Planters' Bank and five millions of 
dollars, sold to take stock to that amount in the Missis- 
sippi Union Bank, amounting in all to the sum of seven 
million three hundred and eighty-two thousand, three hun- 
dred and thirty-five dollars and thirty cents — and the an- 
nual interest on that sum (most of it payable in Europe) 
amounts to the sum of three hundred and seventy thou- 
sand dollars. To preserve the honor of the Stale unsul- 
lied and her credit unimpaired, it is of the last importance 
that the interest should, be punctually paid at the places 
designated and ample funds provided for the redemption 
nf the principal — it is usually much easier to borrow 
and spend money than to provide the means of payment." 

The effect of the "Democratic Rule" since 
that period is most strikingly displayed in the 
fact that the adage with w^hich the paragraph 
closes is now reversed in the case of Mississippi; 



107 

tor, hard as it would be to provide for payment 
under that Rule, it would still be much easier to 
pay this sum than it would be for her to borrow 
the fifth of it. 

The next paragraph is worthy of most partic- 
ular attention, and we give the whole of it. 

"My recorded votes on the Journals of the Senate, 
as well as my speeches during the canvass preceding 
my election to the office I now occupy, show that I never 
was in iavor of pledging the faith of the State for bank- 
ing purposes, but, inasmuch as the question had been 
long before the people, and had twice received their 
sanction, I signed the charter of the Mississippi Union 
Bank, having no constitutional scruples."' 

"And,' 1 it might have been added, "the sup* 
plemental bill also." But, after having used the 
railroad excuse until it was worn out, in 1838, 
it will be recollected that the Governor in one 
of his veto messages, quoted in our fourth chap- 
ter, seems to have discovered that this connexion 
of banking and railroad privileges was altogether 
impolitic and a mere aid to banking. How then, 
after this, and especially after the paragraph from 
iiis message in 1839, last above quoted, he should 
have brought himself to approve and sign a bill 
for "the further issuance of State bonds to the 
amount of one million of dollars in favor of the 
Commercial and Rail Road Bank of Vicksburg, 
as he did [acts of 1S39, p. 361] is indeed most 
strange.* 

The large amount of interest then due, as sta- 
ted above, and all the other reasons just alluded to, 
however, did not deter either the legislature or 
the executive from passing or approving laws to 
authorize the extension of the debt of the State 

* '-Section 1. Be it enacted, #e;, That in order to facilitate 
the said improvement, without depriving the people of the ben- 
efits of the bank, that two hundred bonds, of five thousand dol- 
lars each, payable twenty years after date, to the order of the 
President, directors and company of the Commercial and Rail 
Road Bank of Vicksburg, bearing interest at the rate of six per 
cent per annum, shall be signed by the Governor of the vState. 
countersigned by the State Treasurer and under seal of the State.' 
and the faith of the State be and the same is herebv pledged for 
inctual payment of the principal and interest of said bonds 
—Acts of 39, p. 3G1-2- 



ros 

by the issuance of bonds, if not for banking, at 
least for some purpose or other; for in the acts of 
1839 [p. 41.] we find another act, duly approved, 
authorizing the issuance of bonds to the amount 
of frve millions more, in favor of a plan of inter- 
nal improvement.* These six millions, with up- 
wards of seven millions already obtained and the 
ten and a half millions yet to be obtained on the 
Union Bank bonds would have made a state debt 
for borrowed money alone of the immense amount 
of nearly twenty-four millions of dollars! 
Such was the policy of the "Democratic Rule" 
as late as 1839, with a bankrupt treasury, the 
State officers defaulters, and the whole business 
of government in the most unsatisfactory state. 
Oh "Retrenchmentand Reform!" Oh "Econom- 
ical administration of the government!" 

This is a vast business certainly, and, upon 
the principle that "it is as well to be hung for 
stealing a.full.grownsheep as a lamb," the whole 
amount, (had it been obtained) might just as well 
have been repudiated as the less amount of seven 
millions, and "the people 1 ' would have been 
"saved from ruin" to a far greater extent than 
was done. This argument is especially recom- 
mended to those very cunning men who think 
Mississippi did a great thing in getting the smal- 
ler sum out of "the swindlers of Europe," "for- 
eign Jew brokers," Shylocks, "who hold a mort- 
gage on the sepulchre of the Savior,"! &c. &c, 
and a much greater thing in keeping it. 

*"Jlnd be it further enacted. That the sum of five millions of 
dollars he raised by means of a Joan to said board of Internal 
Improvements; to facilitate which loan of five millions of dol- 
lars, the faith of the State be, and the same is hereby pledged, 
both for the security of the principal and interest ; and that two 
thousand five hundred bonds, of two thousand dollars each, 
to- wit: six hundred and twenty -five, payable in fifteen years, 
six hundred and twenty-five payable in twenty years, six hun- 
dred and twenty-five payable in twenty-five years, and bearing 
interest at the rate of six per cent, per annum, shall be signed by 
the Governor of this State and countersigned by the Treasurer, 
to the order of the board of internal improvement of the State of 
Mississippi, and under the seal of the State."— Acts of '39, p. 4l~^ 

tThe language of the executive documents and the state pa per, 
afterwards— ot which, more anon. 



109 

Other matters in this message may be briefly 
summed up. The establishment of common 
schools and of a university, and a geological sur- 
vey of the State are recommended to the consi- 
deration of the legislature (in the usual stereo- 
typed form of governors' messages) and a very 
flattering account of Jefferson and Oakland col- 
leges, and of certain academies, is given. The 
provision of the constitution that "no money from 
the treasury shall be appropriated to objects of 
internal improvement unless a bill for that pur- 
pose be approved by two thirds of both branches 
of the legislature" is held up as anti-republican 
and odious, and an amendment of the constitution 
in that respect advised. The low ebb to which 
law had fallen (for want of a sufficiency of the 
printed statutes to furnish even the judges) is next 
set forth, and we feel constrained to give a short 
extract : 

" The law, at present, is a sealed book to the great mass 
of the community, but few, even of the judges and other 
public officers, are in possession of all the statutes — com- 
plete copies are not to be had— the unwritten law still 
governs our judges in the adjudication of cases. The 
labor of many years is required to understand what 
laws govern us, and we have to employ counsel at great 
expense to vindicate our rights. The codes of Justini- 
an, of Frederick of Prussia, of Napoleon and of Living- 
ston, prove that law can be written in intelligible lan- 
guage, reduced to a system and made capable of being 
understood by all who read. In the year 1833 the legis- 
lature appointed Gen. P. Rutilius R, Pray to amend," &c ., 
&c. [Sen. Jour. 12] 

The work generally known as "Pray's code," 
which the legislature could never be prevailed 
on to adopt, is then very highly extolled and its 
adoption warmly urged; — with how much of rea- 
son, we have not space to illustrate by a review 
of the book. The division of it relating to crim- 
inal law, with certain amendments and alterations, 
rendering it a mongrel of "codification" and other 
systems of law, was adopted, and is adhered to, 
we believe, whenever it does not conflict with 
those beauties of the English common law and 

K 



no 

certain loosely drawn statutes, an obstinate adher- 
ence to which renders the criminal jurisprudence 
of the State so interestingly uncertain, and tends 
to make nearly every criminal who can afford to 
pay ingenious counsel an honorable member of* 
society, through an acquittal by his peers. 

The militia seem to claim the almost paternal 
regard of the governor, and the danger from In- 
dian outbreaks seems to have been a prominent 
cause for care on this subject, though rather 
indistinctly hinted at. The following extract is 
all that is said of this danger : 

"During the last fall, representations were made to 
the executive that the lives of some four or five individ- 
uals were in great danger — that the Indians were resolv- 
ed to retaliate on them for killing one of their tribe— 
l-hat no organized force in that county existed, to aid 
(he civil officers in preserving the peace and enforcing 
the laws. Believing that neither while men nor Indians 
should be permitted to take the law in their own hands, 
and revenge their supposed wrongs, I considered it my 
duty to take precautionary measures and be prepared 
for any contingency. This had the desired effect, and the 
peace of the country was preserved." [Sen. Jour. 17-18.} 

Jt is to be regretted that a more full account of 
this Indian disturbance is not given, as the tra- 
ditionary accounts of it are so vague and uncer- 
tain that we are unable to deduce a clear and 
succinct account from them. 

The fears of the governor as to the threatened 
"taking of the law into their own hands" by 
the Indians seems to have induced considera- 
ble attention to the military concerns of the State. 
In the first place, the salary of the adjutant gen- 
eral was forthwith increased, [Acts of 1839, ch. 
21,] and the very next act [ch. 22] authorized 
the governor to employ persons to "repair the 
arms and accoutrements in the several armories 
of the State," to "pay the amount of salvage and 
other expenses" on eighteen boxes of muskets 
shipped from Philadelphia on board a vessel 
which was wrecked, and to give the State's bond 
for such further amount as might be necessary. 



Ill 

Five thousand dollars were also appropriated 
tor that object. By another act, [ch. 39 J it 
seems to have been thought advisable to arm 
the faculty and students of Jefferson College, as 
•the quarter-master general is thereby required to 
loan that institution u one hundred stand of mus- 
kets, together with all the other necessary accou- 
trements, upon the trustees or vice-president ot' 
said college giving his or their receipt for the 
same, and a bond and security" in the sum of 
<2000 for the return of the same. The Marshall 
county militia w r as re-organized and divided into 
two regiments, [ch. 70,] and most people then 
residing in the State, will remember the martial 
spirit of the governor, who traversed the State 
in the most magnificent military apparel perhaps 
over imported into the Southern country, partly 
from the North and partly from Europe, attended 
by a large military family, and creating a sensa- 
tion w r herever he went, by a most unusual and 
unlooked for exhibition of "the pride, pomp and 
circumstance of glorious war." The general im- 
pression at the time must have been (if it was 
thought of at all) that, had not the Indians 
changed their minds about "taking the law into 
their own hands" in tripple quick time, the 
slaughter of those sons of the forest w^ould have 
been most tremendous and unheard of, (had there 
been enough of them in the State to operate upon. ) 

The Legislature of 1839 also passed the cele- 
brated gallon law, [Acts,cru 20,] prohibiting inn- 
keepers and others, not only from selling liquor 
in less quantities than a gallon, but from offering 
it to their guests in a less quantity than a gallon, 
and utterly forbidding the sale of it in any quan- 
tity whatever to Indians. 

Besides this tribute to morality, commerce and 
manufactures were encouraged by the incorpora- 
^ion of one shipping company and two manufac- 
turing companies ; neither of all which, we be- 
lieve, ever came to anything. Encouragement 



112 

to railroads was also given, besides that to the 
Commercial and R. R. Bank of Vicksburg already 
alluded to, by granting further time to the West 
Feliciana R. R. (and Banking) Company to com- 
plete their road [ch. 142] and the " R. R. and 
Turnpike Company of Newton and Lauderdale,' J 
chartered in 1838, was authorized to -"change the 
direction" of the road, to acquire by donation or 
purchase 160 acres of iaral on the Chickasawhay 
river, to survey the same into town lots, to sell 
them and apply the proceeds to constructing the 
road ; and, furthermore, " to make and execute 
three bonds" for $10,000 each, payable to the 
governor, in 10, 15 and 20 years, "which said 
bonds," continues the act, "shall be deposited by 
the president of said company with the Auditor 
of Public Accounts, and the said Auditor shall 
thereupon issue a pay warrant in iavor of said 
company for the sum of $30,000, payable out of 
the surplus revenue of the State of Mississippi : 
but, if the surplus revenue should be called for 
by the United States, said bonds shall be payable 
at the time the call may be made." 

Should this $30,000 be "called for by the 
United States," — a matter not at all improbable 
among other desperate expedients for raising the 
wind to carry on the Mexican war, unless the 
bungling financiers at Washington are displaced, 
it is to be presumed that the company will pay 
its bonds, and the State will hand it over with 
all that promptness and despatch for which the 
Democratic Rule in Mississippi is remarkable. 

The Commercial Bank of Columbus, in 1839, 
acted wisely and obtained an act to reduce its 
capital to $500,000 and to repeal the act of 1838, 
"defining" its powers and privileges which we 
have before noticed. No new banks were char- 
tered in 1839. 

As to the Revenue of the State, two acts were 
passed: the first, [ch. 1] requiring tax collectors 
to pay 30 per cent per annum damages on col lee- 



113 

tions not paid over at the time prescribed by- 
law — the second, [ch. 6] rescinding the resolu- 
tion of 1837 in relation to post-notes, so far as it 
authorized the reception of that kind of curren- 
cy for taxes, &c. By a third act [ch. 41] the 
Auditor was instructed to call upon the debtors 
to the State to settle, by his "circular letter" to 
each and every one of them. Those who did 
not heed this polite dun by the first of May ; 39, 
were to be prosecuted, and all district attorneys 
were to aid the attorney general in the suits. 
The State Treasurer was to correspond with the 
banks, and if they did not come to his terms, they 
were also to be sued on their circulation held by 
the State, but they were allowed to pay up, if 
they would, in the notes of the specie paying 
banks of the State. In the mean time, and for 
the purpose of liquidating all demands against 
the State, the Treasurer was authorized to bor- 
row $150,000 from the Union Bank. At the 
same session, the salary of the Auditor was in- 
creased [ch. 29] as was that of the attorney gen- 
eral [ch. 37] "a survey of the whole of the sea- 
coast upon the southern boundary of the State 55 
was ordered and two thousand dollars appropri- 
ated for that purpose, and several other expendi- 
tures were authorized, which, under the peculiar 
state of the finances, ordinary men would proba- 
bly have postponed. " A contingent fund for the 
use of the Executive department" of $4000 per 
annum, was also provided [ch. 49] which, it has 
b^Psaid, has been the means of disseminating 
"democratic principles" (as given in the newspa- 
pers of that party) to a considerable extent ; but 
as the act requires the Governor to account for 
the expenditures under it to the legislature, at 
every session, and no such item has appeared in 
any such account, this must be set down, (to 
borrow the language of Mr. Representative Ro- 
berts on the floor of Congress in relation to the 
charge of repudiation against the State) as hav^ 
k 2 



114 

ing *'no foundation in truth." The suggestion 
of the Governor, above alluded to, to punish 
public defaulters by imprisonment, was followed 
by an act having that object, [ch. 53.] 

Some other acts of the legislature of 1 S39 re- 
quire particular attention — especially that trans- 
fering the stock of the State in the Planters 5 
bank to the Mississippi Rail Road Company, and 
several evidently intended for remedies for the 
times; but we must leave them for another chapter. 



CHAPTER X. 

An act was passed in 1839 [acts ch. 42] "to 
transfer the stock now held by the State in the 
Planters' Bank, and invest the same in stock oi 
the Mississippi Rail Road Company." The 
wording of this title renders its meaning a little 
obscure, but, in this respect, it appears to us not 
altogether inconsistent with the act itself. 

By the first section, the Governor is author- 
ized to subscribe for two millions of dollars of 
stock in the Rail Road Compan} r on the part of 
the State, and to pay for the same by transfer- 
ing to the company the State's stock in the 
Planters' Bank, purchased by the sale of the 
bonds commonly called the Planters' Bank bonds. 
This stock the R. R. Company is authorized to 
sell to the best advantage, reserving any premium 
obtained by such sale to the State. By the 10th 
section, the Planters' Bank is released from pro- 
viding for the bonds and the interest thereonJIW, 
by section 2, the Rail Road Company is substi- 
tuted to perform that task. The stock taken by 
the State in the R. R. Company, as well as that 
of all other stockholders, is held pledged for the 
payment of the bonds and interest. 

This being arranged, it was expected to raise 
two millions of dollars for the R. R. Company, 
wherewith to prosecute the construction of their 
road, by the sale of their stock in the Planters' 



115 

Bank, and two distinguished democrats started 
off and we believe nearly performed "the tour 
of Europe" offering the transferred Planters' 
Bank stock for sale ; but, as bank stock could 
have been purchased by capitalists disposed to 
invest funds in it, almost at any point on their 
route, before their arrival, they, as we think 
might have been expected, signally failed. The 
final result is that the R. R. Company is broken 
and the "Democratic Rule" is suing the private 
stockholders, and, at the same time, striving to 
repudiate the bonds ! The management of this 
whole matter is strikingly interesting and the con- 
test unprecedentedly curious. 

Among the minor remedies for the times, was 
the passage of a bill, which it had been attempted 
to pass, but which failed, in 1838, "repealing all 
laws now (then) in force taxing fees to attorneys 
and counsellors at law." [Acts of 1839, ch. 33. J 
The intention of this act was to cut off the only 
remaining fee taxed in the costs of suits for the 
benefit of attorneys — the legal effect was to raise 
that fee from five dollars to ten, the only law "in 
force" being one which repealed a former one al- 
lowing ten dollars, and substituting five. When 
the law of 5 39 repealed the former repealing law, 
it revived the original one. The mass of attor- 
neys, however, looked with contempt upon the 
measure, and in very few instances was this 
strictly legal construction insisted upon ; but, in 
1840, another law was passed repealing u aU 
Vdrtm before enacted allowing a tax fee to attor- 
neys," &c. [Acts of 1840, ch. 109.] It was 
thus left to creditors, if they wouldbe so unrea- 
sonable as to sue for what was due them, to pay 
the whole of the fees of their attorneys and 
counsel themselves. 

This was a small affair indeed — too small to 
be here deliberately discussed or more than bare- 
ly mentioned, but for the fact that though a small 
part, it was part of a movement intended to be 



116 

mighty in its results — a movement to create a 
prejudice against the bar as a body — a movement 
which is still renewed from time to time, but 
which is probably destined never to bring forth 
greater results than the act of 1839, or rather 
that of 1840, just alluded to. 

Of course the bar was, more than any and all 
other classes, in the way of those demagogues 
who wished to create political capital out of the 
distresses of the limes by wresting from the ju- 
diciary those questions between creditors and 
debtors which were within its peculiar pro- 
vince to decide, and, accompanied by appeals to 
the pockets of individuals, making political issues 
of questions of law — in other and plain words, 
making the debtor interest umpire and final arbiter 
in cases in ivhich it was a party interested. The 
bar, therefore as a class, was denounced — some- 
times openly and boldly, by the democratic press, 
and again covertly and slyly in all manner of 
places. To precede our history a little in point 
of time, one heaven-inspired debtor, it is 
said, used his privilege as a preacher of the gos- 
pel, to deliver a sermon during the session of a 
court upon which there was a large attendance 
of debtors, against banks and lawyers. Another 
preacher, of the same stamp, on one occasion, 
boldly preached the doctrine that a man when 
hard pressed by debts, owed it to God to take 
care of his family, in the disposition of his pro- 
perty ; and, under all these inducements, it may 
be set down to the credit of the sherifT-ritRJen 
masses, that nothing worse has been done than 
has occurred — at least, that the anti-bar move- 
ment, which has been and still is occasionally 
attempted in other States of the Union, as well 
as Mississippi, should have had no greater re- 
sults. In such times as those of which we write, 
of course the Bar was in constant requisition. 
It was the only body of men in the State which, 
as a body, had a word to say, or would say a 



117 

word, for the creditor interest. With its usual 
firmness in pursuing what it well knew to be 
rights j the bar, almost to a man, had opposed 
innovations, specifics and panaceas in legislation 
which its superior knowledge of the principles 
o( government taught it would but aggravate 
the evil they were invented to cure. It could 
and dared say more, too, in opposition to major- 
ities than any other class, for the reason that, es- 
pecially in America, it has secured to itself a 
deeply founded respect in the hearts of the peo- 
ple, who know that it has always been found 
arrayed against tyranny, in every shape and form, 
and never failed to make a bold, self-sacrificing 
defence, in all times and countries, in favor of 
what, in truth and in fact, are rights, and, with 
that moderate but firm determination and just and 
reasonable discrimination which usually insure 
success. It was, therefore, no easy task to get 
up a prejudice against lawyers as a class, where 
all men of sense saw that, obnoxious as it mem- 
bers might be as collectors of money in such 
times, they were but pursuing the legitimate 
business of their profession and, unpleasant as it 
might be to themselves, but (as usual) pursuing 
simple rights This however, as we have in- 
timated, was attempted by demagogues, who, 
knowing that a body which has illustrated, by 
being always able to protect itself, notwith- 
standing its smallness of numbers, the truth of 
the maxim that "knowledge is power," it could 
never be hoodwinked, deceived, swayed by tem- 
porary difficulties from what was known to be 
good from experience, or unduly influenced, 
wished to drown the voices of its members in 
politics and, as far as possible, to exclude them 
from the law making branch of the government. 
According to these ultra democratic defamers, if 
members of the bar energetically advocated the 
rights of a client in a sister State, they were 
"bought up by foreigners" — if they pressed the 



US 

claim of a bank, they were " the tools of swind- 
ling corporations" — take them in any way, in or 
out of the courts or the legislature, and they 
knew too much for those who wished to subvert 
a right or perpetrate a wrong, legally or politi- 
cally. Nevertheless, demagogues have, w T ith 
more or less fervor, kept up the cry, and still 
keep it up ; and it is of very recent occurrence 
that a political address severely criticising the 
conduct of the present national administration, 
on constitutional and legal grounds, and its poli- 
cy in administering the government, on princi- 
ples of political science, has been denounced by 
several leading democratic journals in the State, 
because it is written and signed almost exclusive- 
ly by lawyers ; a class which, from the constant 
study of those very subjects, (it is to be inferred) 
must know less about them than any other class on 
earth ! How this movement is to succeed event- 
ually in Mississippi and the other States of the 
Union where it is a growing part of the demo- 
cratic creed, may be yet a problem ; but, so far, 
it has effected nothing more than was to have 
been expected by reflecting men, from the prac- 
tical test of a proposition to the effect that it is 
always best, on any given subject, to take the 
counsel of those who know very little about it 
and have never studied it at all. 

At the time of which we write, the attempt 
was unsuccessful. The very circumstances of 
which it w r as sought to take advantage, prevented 
the success of the project. As strong a hold as 
the debtor interest had obtained of (to use the 
language, in 1845, of the State paper and chief 
organ of the Mississippi democracy) "the club 
of legislation," wherewith to "decapitate" credi- 
tors, and cramped as we must suppose the courts 
were by the "authorities" and "judicial" blind- 
ness to which we particularly alluded in our 4th 
chapter, the bar, with characteristic ingenuity, 
occasionally reached debtors, and even "mere 



119 

iddorsers," much sooner than they had dreamed 
of, producing, of course, in each instance, a mur- 
mur against these mere agents of the law, whose 
acuteness caused its effectual execution against 
desperate legislation in derogation of justice. 
These murmurs weie eagerly caught at, and at- 
tempts made to fan them into an enormous mag- 
nitude ; but such instances were rare, and it was 
soon found that the bar was quite as necessary 
to the one class of titigants as to the other, and 
legal ingenuity and acuteness more necessary to 
debtors than to creditors. After the profession 
had whetted its intellect, refreshed its memory 
with the almost forgotten lore of rights long 
disused er spurned as beneath the high toned 
honor of Mississippians, — we refer especial ly 
to the law pertaining to protests of notes and 
bills and notices of non-payment — (for the crisis 
came upon that body like an avalanche and found 
it almost as unprepared fer the conflict as the 
Asiatic cholera found the medical profession) — 
it was aroused from the blunting and rusting ef- 
fects of that "general high sense of honor per- 
vading our whole population and the lofty indis- 
position almost universally prevailing among us 
not to invoke the aid of law in resistance of a 
claim of unquestionable justice," spoken of in 
the Report of Mr. H. S. Foote recited in our 
eighth chapter, poised itself firmly, and was rea- 
dy for the very closest and most minute practice 
which the emergency might require at its hands 
on either side of questions where a clear (though 
sometimes an arbitrary) constitutional or legal 
right was to be found. Thus, as we have said, 
le^al acumen was of more use to the great ma- 
joritv of suitors — the debtor interest — than to 
creditors, whose cases were comparatively the 
plainest, as judged by the simple principles of 
justice, notwithstanding the impediments the 
mature were, as we have seen, throwing in 
vray of the latter, with the view of rendering 



120 

justice and law as distinct and separate as possi- 
ble. The bar, therefore, held its own, as it has 
done and probably will do again, under even more 
determined attempts to crush it — maintaining 
and advocating known rights at any and all haz- 
ards to itself, as it did when called upon even 
during the "reign of terror" in France — the 
stumbling-block of tyranny and wrong in every 
form, whether sought to be imposed by a single 
despot, selfish demagogues, or the wild surges of 
an irritated or misled republican majority. So 
much at least it is due to an honorable and indis- 
pensable class of society to say, however advis- 
able it may be for the people to have as little oc- 
casion as possible for the services of its members. 

As a practical reflection upon these events, it 
is worthy of serious consideration, whether it 
may not be laid down as a maxim, that, when- 
ever an attempt is made to get up a popular influ- 
ence against the bar, as a class, some sinister de- 
sign of subverting a right or perpetrating a wrong, 
is not always to be found under cover of it, and 
whether, whenever a party in political power, 
either by its legislature or its press, encourages 
such a movement, or a ruler rails at the bar as a 
body, secret Tyranny skulks not beneath, or 
veiled Oppression stalks not in the wake. 

The next Remedy for the times which, among 
the acts of 1839, claims our attention is, "An act 
to Abolish Imprisonment for Debt." [ch. 45] 
This act may perhaps be considered as a mere 
indication of the advancement of the spirit of the 
age in relation to abolishing imprisonment for 
debt, which has at length manifested itself 
throughout the Union. The principal objections 
to the passage of this act in Mississippi are the 
time at which it was passed and some peculiar 
features of the act itself. It had been found that, 
in many instances, where executions against the 
property of individuals produced only the return 
by the sheriff of "no property found," one against 



121 

the person would immediately produce sufficient 
property to satisfy the demand. It was also ob- 
jectionable as, in fact, rendering the debtor interest 
itself umpire in its own case; for it was retro- 
spective in its action and an interference with 
the remedy upon contracts already in existence, 
and so intended to operate; whereas, it could 
only be fair and just, and, we say, constitutional, 
as to future contracts. Again, it was, in effect, 
universal in its application to debtors, whether 
honest or fraudulent. To be sure it pretends to 
except the latter from its benefits, but, in every 
such case, the creditor is, by its terms, required 
to swear, point blank, to the fraudulent mind and 
intention of the debtor ; as that the debtor is re- 
moving his property with the intent to defraud — 
that he is about to convert it into money for the 
purpose of placing it beyond the reach of the 
creditor — that he fraudulently conceals his assets, 
or that he fraudulently contracted the debt, &c, 
and hard as it was, and ever is, to swear to the 
actual intention of another, even under quite sus- 
picious circumstances, such had been the effect of 
the pressure of the times and the evil example 
of previous immoral legislation, that the required 
affidavit was so frequently made as to induce the 
legislature of 1840 to pass an amendatory act 
[Acts of 1840, ch. 8,] the first section of which 
is as follows : 

" Be it enacted by the Legislature of the State of Mis- 
sissippi., That from and after the passage of this act, no 
person whatever shall be imprisoned for debt, under any 
■pretence, unless upon issue submitted to a jury, and they 
declare there has been fraud on the part of the debtor in 
concealing his property." 

The difficulty of getting any case of the kind 
"submitted to a jury" — at all events, in time to 
do the creditor any good or before the debtor 
could make his escape with his property, marks 
the character of the whole matter, and palpably 
places the measure in the long list of acts of 
legislation for the exclusive benefit of debtors, 

L 



123 

Yet another " Remedy for the Times" is to 
be found in the acts of 1839. We refer to "An 
aet for the protection and preservation of the 
rights and property of Married Women, [ch. 46.] 
The passage of this act, like the preceding, may 
possibly be attributed by many to the spirit of the 
age — a growing intention to protect the actual 
property of the fairer and better portion of hu- 
manity, and, as the permanent law and settled 
policy of a State, passed under different circum- 
stances and taking effect a long time after its pas- 
sage, would not be objectionable. The time of its 
passage, however, and the effect it has had, and 
must have had in such times, render its passage ob- 
noxious to the most serious objections. The re- 
mark is a common one that in its passage, women 
and their peculiar rights and property, were 
scarcely thought of, and, although it contains a 
provision that the property secured by it to the 
sole use of married women, and not liable for the 
debts of the husband, shall not be derived from 
the husband after marriage, it is notorious that 
no act ever passed has been a cover to more or 
ranker injustice than this. 

Among the protests against acts passed by the 
legislature of 1839, by members of the two 
houses respectively, was that of Senators Ray- 
burn, Brown and Haley against "An act sup- 
plemental to an act to change the direction of the 
Lauderdale and Newton Turnpike Company." 1 
The chief ground of complaint is thus stated : 
[Sen. Jour. 350.] 

"By this vi-te of the Senate, they have, in our judg- 
ments, squandered the public money upon a company of 
individuals engaged chiefly in speculations, whose per- 
sonal interest will be promoted by the law in question ; 
while, on the other hand, the State will not be benefited 
by the appropriation." 

Another protest was made by Representatives 
Puckett, Gholson, and several others, against the 
Act transferring the State stock in the Planters' 
Bank to the Mississippi Railroad company. This 



123 

document takes the ground that the act is uncon- 
stitutional, as impairing the obligation of the con- 
tracts with the holders of the bonds. It is further 
denounced as a fraud upon the bond holders — 
more particularly that part of the act which 
changes the destination of the sinking fund, 
which was instituted to pay off the bonds, but 
which is by the act to transfer [Acts of ? 39, p. 62] 
applied to the discharge of the bonds to the 
amount of $250,000, while the remainder is to 
be paid into the State treasury. This protest 
[House Jour. 443] says: 

"The money which paid for the stock proposed to be 
transferred from the Planters' bank to the Mississippi 
Rail Road Company, was, under the provisions of the 
charter, obtained by loans on the part ot the State, for 
i he payment of which, the stock, in addition to the faith 
of the government, was pledged to the holders oj the 
bonds of the State. By the terms of the contract, be- 
tween the commissioners on the part of the Slate, and 
the purchasers of the bunds, the interest on the loans is 
required to be paid semi-annually, out of the semi-an- 
nual dividends accruing upon the said stock; and the 
surplus of such dividends, after paying the said interest, 
is to be converted into a sinking fund, for the payment 
and liquidation of said loans. The bill, as the title pur- 
ports, simply provides for the transfer of the stock now 
held by the State in the Planters' bank, and that the same 
shall be invested in the stock of the Mississippi Rail 
Road Company, leading from Natchez to Canton, which 
has banking privileges to twice the amount of capital 
stock paid in. The transferring of the stock and the 
dividends accruing thereon to another soulless and irre- 
sponsible corporation, and the appropriation of the same 
to the construction of a road, is a violation of, and im- 
pairs the obligation of the contract made and entered 
into with the purchasers or holders of the bonds of the 
Slate, under a solemn act of the legislature." 

One passage of this protest is worthy of being 
transcribed and borne in remembrance. It shows 
that the glorious old character of the State was 
-till claimed for her in 1839, and that great regard 
was still manifested for her honor. 

"If it should be thought that a people composed of so 
mack virtue, honor and chivalry, as the noble and gen- 
erous Mississippians, would disdain, and consequently 
refrain from repealing or violating their plighted faith, 



124 

it may be answered that the faith of the State solemnly 
and sacredly pledged by an act of the legislature, with 
all the formality and solemnity of a constitutional law, 
is violated by the provisions of this very bill under con- 
sideiation. The faith of the State is pledged to the 
holders of the bonds by the original and subsequent acts 
incorporating the Planters' bank, as solemnly as nation- 
al or legislative pledges can be made, that the stock and 
dividends accruing thereon shall be faithfully appropri- 
ated to the redemption and payment of said loans, and 
all interest thereon, as they respectively become due ; 
the appropriation of this fund to another purpose, is, 
therefore, a violation of the faith of the State." 

This protest is further remarkable for a touch 
of repudiation doctrine, though probably not in- 
tended to be so in the least degree. It is as 
follows : 

"It is true that the faith of the State is, by an act of the 
legislature, also pledged ior the redemption of the bonds ; 
but this pledge, solemn and sacred as it may appear, is 
nothing more nor less than a pledge made by an act of 
one legislature, subject to be altered, amended, or repealed 
by a subsequent one, under the instructions and control of 
the people — in a republican government, the source of 
all power, and the only supreme rulers known to the 
constitution and laws of the State.'' 

Something more of the same sort is advanced, 
in another place, which has turned out to have 
been somewhat " in the prophetic vein" — to-wit : 

"We come to the conclusion that thefaith of the State, 
separate and apart from the stock and the dividends ac- 
cruing thereon, however solemnly pledged, amounts to 
no security at all either in fact or "in law/ 7 

The principal Veto message of 1839 may be 
found in the Senate Journal, page 340. It was 
upon a bill entitled "An act to extend additional 
privileges to the Mississippi Union Bank, and for 
other purposes." The main objection was that 
it gave discretion to the Bank to issue post notes. 
The governor thinks this useless as well as im- 
politic. He says " the commissioners could be 
despatched at once to negotiate the sale of the 
remaining bonds." We should like to give sev- 
eral extracts from this message, but we have al- 
ready given so much space to the political events 
of 1839, that we are admonished to curtail our 
notes upon that year. 



125 

A bill to amend the charter of the Benton and 
Manchester Railroad and Banking Company was 
also vetoed. [Sen. Jour. 347.] 

Another Veto message [Sen. Jour. 347] being 
u short and sweet" and very peculiar, we give in 
extenso : 

To the Senate : — 

The act in relation to the town of Kosciusko is re- 
turned because it sanctions the right of the corporation 
to grant licenses for retailing spirituous liquors in quan- 
tities not less than a quart, A. G. McNUTT. 

Executive Department. 

City of Jackson, 15th Feb., 1839. 

There is another solemn objection of the same 
kind made in the message vetoing a bill to in- 
corporate the town of Middleton, [House Jour. 
357,] showing that the executive was "set and 
determined" upon a gallon as the minimum quan- 
tity of liquor to be sold in the State. As to the 
message above cited, the Senate were doubtless 
effectually temperance struck by it, as the vote 
upon the re-passage of the act. stood ayes 0, nays 
21. If " sobriety in all things" had prevailed, the 
passage of two bills noticed in the preceding 
chapter, for extending the State debt to the tune 
of six millions of dollars, would have been 
emitted. 

Here w r e are unfortunately obliged to close our 
notes upon the events of 1839 ; but we assure 
the reader it is by no means for want of interest- 
ing matter. The more important movements of 
the " Democratic Rule" in subsequent years, 
however, hurry us onward. 



CHAPTER XL 

It will be recollected that Mr. McNutt had 
•ecome governor of the State for the term com- 
prising the years 1838 and 1839 upon a minority 
vote — the whigs having run two candidates, the 
joint vote for whom exceeded the democratic 
vote by a considerable majority. In the canvass 
of 1839, he was again a candidate, and had but 
L 2 



126 

one opponent — the Hon. Edward Turner, previ- 
ously chancellor of the State. On the eighth of 
January, 1840, the votes were "counted and 
published" by the legislature, when it was found 
that Mr. McNutt had received 18,900 and Mr, 
Turner 15,886 ; the majority for the former being 
upwards of 3000 votes. [Sen. Jour. 1840, p 64.1 

To the Mississippian who loves his State, 
there is more that is disheartening and melancholy 
in the contemplation of this result than merely 
marks the gaining or losing of a political contest 
by one party or another. Strictly speaking, it 
was not a democratic victory : the majority for 
Harrison, in the presidential canvass of the suc- 
ceeding November, shows this. Unfortunately 
for the character of the State, the cause is to be 
found in the success of that disgraceful pander- 
ing to some of the worst propensities of human 
nature exemplified in the series of acts of the 
Democratic Rule in Mississippi upon which we 
have particularly animadverted in the preceding 
chapters — acts for the exclusive benefit of the 
debtor interest at the expense of creditors. 

We b} r no means intend to convey the idea that 
one political party is as much to blame as the 
other for this immoral legislation. Such an in- 
sinuation would be the rankest injustice to the 
whigs. That party had, and have up to the pre- 
sent day, as a party, stood aloof from all schemes 
for interfering with the rights of creditors, and 
spurned the very idea of taking advantage of the 
pressure of the times to make appeals to the 
pockets of the people or pandering to individual 
weakness or wickedness for party purposes. No 
temptation has induced them to soil their banner 
by such conduct. On the contrary, all attempts 
of individual members or cliques of whigs to 
fasten the stigma of yielding to the temptations 
of the times upon the party, as such, has been 
signally rebuked and made to recoil upon the 
heads of their authors. The escutcheon of that 



127 

now powerless and downtrodden party is untar- 
nished by the slightest act of repudiation, either 
of public or private debts, and the party itself is 
guiltless of the first attempt to dishonor the State 
under pretence of "a sacred regard for the consti- 
tution," or to disgrace human nature under the 
popular cry of "anti-bankism." The "progress" 
Mississippi has made from bad to worse, and the 
succession of curses, related and yet to be related, 
which have fallen upon her, as the effects of im- 
moral legislation, all lie at the door of the "Demo- 
cratic Rule" exclusively. That party has had 
power, constantly, to prevent the wrong and 
pursue the right. 

The real statesman who has marked the course 
of legislation to which we have adverted will not 
be surprised to find that it utterly failed to do any 
good — that distress, disorder and embarrassment 
still continued, and that one act of misrule bred 
another, or that one desperate legislative attempt 
to relieve men from debt without paying, but en- 
gendered" those more desperate. 

The executive message to the legislature of 
1840 at the commencement of the session was 
read in the Senate on the 7th of January. [Jour. 
27.] The first words in it worthy particular re- 
mark are "great distress still exists ; an immense 
mass of property has been sacrificed, and many of 
our citizens have been forced to abandon the 
Stale," and we think few will doubt the agency 
of the " Remedies for the times" which had been 
adopted, in causing this abandonment of the State. 
Again : on the next page, we find the first dark 
hint, from any such source, that the State had lost 
character as well as credit. "I indulge the hope," 
says the governor, "that the period is not far dis- 
tant when the people will again become prosper- 
ous, and the State restored to her proper station 
in character and credit" Surely there was nothing 
in the misfortunes of the people, though they 
might have been the result of imprudence, to 



12S 

deprive them of character. Nothing short of 
such " remedies" as had been adopted within 
the preceding two years, and their immoral ef- 
fects, could have done that. 

The paragraph which follows this confession 
we quote below. It may reveal to those who 
have particularly noted the preceding and subse- 
quent course of the executive, that he, at least, 
did not intend to change his course. We italicise 
some portions. 

'•Much depends upon the action of the present legisla- 
ture. Too much reliance has heretofore been placed 
upon the action of the federal government and upon 
temporary measures of financial relief adopted by our- 
selves. It affords me much pleasure to meet with a new 
legislature, fresh from the people. Many of you have 
not participated in our previous legislation, and we all 
come here pledged to aid in reforming abuses which can 
be tolerated no longer. The existing evils are deeply 
rooted; bold and decisive measures are necessary to eradi- 
cate them. The greatest good of the greatest number, 
and the permanent welfare of the whole State should 
be consulted, rather than the interest of the few. — The 
relief of one portion of our fellow-citizens should not 
be attempted when detrimental to a more numeious class, 
who have been less reckless in their operations and have 
higher claims on our sympathies" [Sen. Jour. 28.] 

Though it is true that creditors, whether as 
individuals or banks, were comparatively "few," 
and debtors "a more numerous class," it would 
seem doubtful whether these were the two classes 
referred to, from the assertion that the more nu- 
merous class had higher claims upon the "sympa- 
thies" of an independent and patriotic executive 
and legislature, though fully one third of the 
message is devoted to denouncing one class of 
creditors, the banks, and a special message on the 
same subject is promised, and follows, a few days 
afterwards, which evince the opinion that those 
institutions are "abuses which can be tolerated 
no longer," and "bold and decisive measures to 
eradicate them" are certainly advised. Sufficient 
unto the day, however, is the evil thereof, and 
we shall arrive at that subject in due course, 



129 

We have previously to notice some further i indi- 
cations of the state of the times furnished by 
this message. 

We have before intimated that, despite all the 
remedies of the Democratic Rule, the times grew 
worse instead of better. There appeared to be 
no estimating the extent of the indebtedness of 
the people of the State. Suits were constantly 
on the increase, the dockets of the courts were 
more and more crowded — and, as it was not so 
easy to reach the action of the United States 
Court by State legislation, foreign creditors pre- 
ferred to submit their causes to the judgment of 
that tribunal, and did so until, instead of the judg- 
ship being a mere sinecure, as previously, the 
office became one of great importance and involv- 
ed considerable labor, owing to the great increase 
of business in the court. From this circum- 
stance, the federal court became a sort of bug 
bear to the reformers of the day, and we might 
have noticed among the events of a previous 
year, a memorial from the legislature to Congress, 
complaining of the expense of jurors attending 
it. Something more of the same sort lies before 
us, which we shall notice in due time; but our 
immediate object is to show, by the following 
extrordinary extract from the message, that those 
who had the privilege of suing in that court were, 
for more reasons than one, fortunate in availing 
themselves of it. We quote from page 31 of 
the Journal of the Senate. 

"Sheriffs and Coroners have resigned about the com- 
mencement of the court for the evident purpose of pre- 
venting the term being held, and thus defeating the reg- 
ular administration of the laws!" 

From another part of the same paragraph, it 
appears that another trick was to neglect to sum- 
mon a jury, and the Governor proposes a remedy 
w T hich, provided the judges remained uncorrupted, 
unlike* the sheriffs and coroners, would be likely 
effectually to thwart the patriotic design of those 



130 

official worthies. One argument used against 
the practice, however, strikes us as being, in some 
measure^ remarkable. He says : 

"Its tendency has been in some measure to sully the 
character of the State, and to drive foreign creditors to 
the Federal Court for the collection ol their claims.' 1 

Another evidence of disorganization follows 
(p. 32.) It is this: 

' { I am advised that the final records of the courts are 
rarely made up pursuant to law. It is believed that they 
are imperfect in almost every office of the State. * 

* * * * V7hen a new clerk comes into office he 
finds the fees for such services collected and the work 
undone. He refuses therefore to bring up the unfinish- 
ed business of the office and the records are suffered to 
remain in their imperfect state." 

This is not a very flattering commentary upon 
the effect of "rotation in office" or the elective 
principle — at least so far as clerks of courts are 
concerned. 

The Governor advises that a special commis- 
sioner be appointed to examine all the clerks of- 
fices in the State, and proposes to reduce the 
fees of sheriffs, clerks, &c. He says : 

"The princely salaries which many of our officers are 
now receiving from the hard earnings of the people, 
neither comport with the spirit of our institutions nor 
correspond with the necessities of the times." 

One reason given for the latter recommenda- 
tion is, that at the time the rates of fees were 
established (1824) suits were comparatively few 
— the suits then pending in the whole State not 
being as numerous as those in a single county in 
1S40 — a striking commentary upon the change 
in the times, but not entirely convincing as an 
argument against paying the clerks in proportion 
to the amount of business performed by them. 

At page 36, attention is called to the "judicial 
legislation" of the High Court, Superior Court 
of Chancery, and several Circuit Courts. The 
complaint is that "in many cases, parties are pro- 
hibited from being heard by counsel in open court, 
but are required to submit written arguments 
and briefs," precluding, it is stated, a reply to 



131 

the arguments and authorities adduced by the 
opposite party and placing it u in the power of 
the judge to overlook the adjudications cited, to 
the manifest injury of suitors." The question 
is also made whether the Rules of several of these 
courts are not unconstitutional. 

The Probate Courts are also alluded to. We 
give one sentence as another indication of the 
generally loose state of affairs at the period. 

" Too much power is given to the judge in vacation, 
and, in numerous cases, the securities of executors, ad- 
ministrators and guardians are utterly insolvent when 
taken." 

So much for the courts. We come now to 
the state of the finances. A few extracts from 
the message will show this. At page 3S of the 
Senate Journal, w r e find the following : 

;, The long list of defaulters given in the auditor's re- 
port and the immense amount of arrearages remaining 
unpaid, show that something is wrong in the present 
system. ******* It is outrageous that 
taxes should be wrung, from the hard earnings of the 
people and squandered by the officers they have chosen 
■o collect them." 

One would think this would have been suffi- 
cient to induce "the people" to be careful in the 
election of all officers whose duty it might be to 
handle the public funds. Party, however, ap- 
peared to govern in most instances, and to be at 
this time growing more and more illiberal and 
proscriptive. Besides this, the pecuniary pres- 
sure and the aid afforded by the government to 
debtors were productive of an unpatriotic selfish- 
ness of feeling which induced men to care no- 
thing for aught but individual interest. Another 
extract from the message (p. 39) is as follows: 
"Thirty-three tax collectors are in default, the sum of 
690.617 46, for taxes accruing prior to the year 1838 — 
suits have been ordered against them on their bonds. 
Twenty-six tax collectors are in default in the sum of 
$26,980 27, for taxes assessed in the year 1838. It is 
believed that these sums fall far short of the actual de- 
falcations. Immense sums are yeaily collected which 
are not returned on the roll of the assessors, and, under 
the existing laws, it is impracticable to bring officers 
thus in default to account." 



132 

Changes in the laws regulating the proceed- 
ings of the Auditor and Treasurer are recom- 
mended, and it is advised that the office of asses- 
sor and collector be separated and distinct, and 
that either the Governor and Senate, or boards of 
county police, be authorized by law to appoint 
the assessors, in place of electing them — also, that 
the Executive be authorized to remove default- 
ers. By the way, an argument is made to show 
that Executive influence would be rather dimin- 
ished than increased by these powers being be- 
stowed upon the Governor. Another passage 
(p. 40) is as follows : 

"The total amount of State tax assessed during the 
present fiscal year is SI 54,577 70-100. The assessors 
of the counties of Carroll, DeSoto, Holmes, Jackson, 
Jones, Kemper, Leake, Lata) ette, Noxube, Pike, Panola, 
Rankin, Tishemingo, Washington and Wayne, have 
tailed to return the assessment rolls as required by law. 
The auditor estimates the State tax in those counties at 
$27,695 21-100. Suits will, in due season, be ordered 
on the bonds of said defaulters." 

The finances of the State government, as might 
be suspected under these delectable statements in 
relation to the conduct of officers having the pub- 
lic funds under their control, show "a beggarly 
account of empty boxes." At page 39, we find 
the following : 

"The receipts into the Treasury from the 1st of Jan- 
uary to the 30th of November, 1839, amounted to the 
sum of $287,141 32, and the Disbursements during the 
same period were $3GG,218 09. The sum of $8,473 18, 
obtained by the executive of the Union Bank on account 
of notes taken for town lots and discounted by the bank, 
as well as the further sum of $140,831 76 borrowed by 
the Slate Treasurer of that institution in pursuance of 
authority vested in him by law, are included in the re- 
ceipts. The actual disbursements, therefore, exceed the 
receipts arising from ordinary sources, the sum of $228,- 
381 71. ***** *. * The appropriation made 
for clearing out the Chickasawhay river is included in 
the disbursements, but has not been paid in consequence 
of the inability of the Treasurer to cash the Auditor's 
warrant." 

It would seem from these various indications 
of the effects of Democratic Rule, which resulted, 
in 1842, in the repudiation of the principal part 



133 

of the State debt and, in 1843, by an attempt to 
relieve an extensive class of private debtors — 
those who owed the banks — from their liabilities, 
that the people might be satisfied of the fact that 
they had tried the policy of that party long enough 
to convince any one that its office holders knew 
so little of the true principles of government, 
nothing could be lost by dispensing with their 
services. This, however, is not the case : the 
popularity of that party seems to have been con- 
stantly on the increase, and it is imperative upon 
us to show more of the acts, and the effects 
thereof, of that peculiarly original, inventive and 
innovating body of men, which, under the cry of 
"progress," strides on apace, utterly disregarding 
the lights and admonitions of experience. 

As though by way of remedy to these "dis- 
tresses of the times," the governor persists in 
taxing bank stocky and byway of consolation for 
pecuniary ills, gives very flattering accounts of 
the perfection to which he has brought the mili- 
litia ; having spent nearly $800 for copies of 
"Cooper's Tactics," for which he asks an appro- 
priation.* As to the six millions proposed to be 
borrowed, but to do which required the action of 
the legislature of 1840, (and something besides,) 
the message is a pretty good specimen of non- 
committal. At page 43, we find the following: 

11 Two bills will come up for your final action, pro- 
posing to pledge the faith of the State for the further sum 
of six millions of dollars for the internal improvement 
of the country. These bills have already! passed one 
Legislature, and no doubt will be acted upon with the 
caution and deliberation called for by the magnitude of 
the subject and its important bearing upon the future 
welfare and credit of the State." 

From a previous part of the same paragraph, 
it appears that the "character and credit" of the 
State was beginning to depreciate, and it contains, 

* The PENxn.vNT of his excellency for military matters seems 
to have been irreftifftable. The Tndians, however, seem to have 
remained quiet, and he had no opportunities in the " tented 
field.'' 



134 

perhaps, the first faint croakings of repudiation. 
We refer to the following words : 

"It is quite probable that several of the States will be 
unable to pay the interest punctually, in par funds, on 
the loans they have contracted. Many years will elapse 
before money can be borrowed of foreign capitalists on 
iavorable terms and it may well be questioned whether we 
have a right to saddle our posterity with a heavy debt for 
any other purpose than to provide for our National de- 
fence and the perpetuity of our free institutions. If the 
debt incurred was due to our own citizens its burthens 
would not be so great," &c, &c. [p. 43.] 

It appears further from the message [p. 29.] 
that the executive had just discovered what we 
think we have shown to have been perfectly plain 
in 1837, and 1838, viz; 

c: It may well be questioned whether the benefits aris- 
ing from the incorporation of many of our towns compen- 
sate the people for the heavy burdens imposed upon 
them by the additional taxation required to support ihe 
municipal governments." 

One short sentence in this document was, we 
presume, exceedingly popular. It is at page 40, 
and in these words : "1 am opposed to the in- 
crease of taxes at the present period." This was 
doubtless entirely in consonance with ihe spirit of 
the times. A little further on [p. 41.] it is sta- 
ted that "judgment has been obtained against the 
Mississippi and Alabama Rail Road Company 
(the Brandon Bank) for $229,584 and interest." 
Taking this as a basis, we could not be surprised 
at what follows, viz: "I consider the whole debt 
due by the banks very doubtful;" but as "the 
old Brandon," as it w r as popularly called, was 
about u the worst chance" among them, the exe- 
cutive is not at all justified in that indiscriminate 
war upon banks, (several of which, if let alone, 
would ultimately have paid up) of which he was 
"the commander in chief," though Mr. Briscoe 
may be said to have superceded him and thrown 
his most striking and valorous movements far into 
the shade. In after ages, when the various decis- 
ions of the judiciary upon this interesting subject 
shall have been reconciled and rendered perfectly 



13.3 

clear and plain by the smoothing hand of Time, — 
when "posterity" shall be anxious to show their 
gratitude to those who have, by means of this 
bank war, fastened an imperishable and glorious 
tame upon the State, and there shall remain but 
a single statue niche vacant in the rotunda of 
the capitol, it may be a subject of dispute 
whether the likeness in marble or bronze of one 
or the other of these leaders shall fill it. This, 
however, is going so very far into futurity, that 
we cannot expatiate more largely upon it. 

The subject of the banks, as treated of in the 
document before us, is too lengthy to be reviewed 
at the end of a chapter, and we therefore reserve 
it for a fresh one. In the meanwhile, the reader 
may cogitate upon the "progress" Swartwouting 
had made under the "Democratic Rule" in Mis- 
sissippi up to the year 1840. 



chapter xir. 
The act authorizing the legislature to appoint a 
board of Bank Commissioners, to serve tor two 
years, was passed in 1837. The two years ex- 
pired in May 1839 ; and, whether supposing it 
useless and expensive to continue this commis- 
sion beyond that period, or from other causes, 
the legislature of 1839 adjourned without either 
taking any steps to continue the law in force, or 
making any appointment of commissioners. Un- 
der a clause of this law, quoted in the Execu- 
tive message to the legislature of 1840, which is 
in these words — "whenever a vacancy shall hap- 
pen in the office of either of said commissioners, 
from any cause whatever, it shall be the duty of 
the governor, as soon as informed of the fact, 
forthwith to appoint from the same district, some 
suitable person to fill such vacancy," — governor 
McNutt undertook to keep the measure alive by 
the appointment of Messrs. Francis Leech, Basil 
C. Harley, and Charles T. Flusser, a full board. 
of commissioners. 



136 

The italics in the above quotation are our own-, 
and not those of his^ excellency, who, on the 
other hand, italicises- only the words- "from any 
cause whatever," and we have made this distinc- 
tion in order that the reader may judge whethen 
he or those banks which refused to acknowledge 
his right to constitute an entirely new boaTd of 
commissioners w r ere correct in their respective 
constructions of the law. From, the words em- 
phasized by us, we think it very clear that the 
power to appoint by the executive was confined 
to death, resignation^ or refusal to act by either 
of the commissioners during the term for which 
he w r as appointed by the legislature. The gov- 
ernor, however,, complains of the Commercial 
Bank of Columbus, the Tombigbee R. R. and 
Banking Company, the Aberdeen and Pontotos 
R. R. and Banking Company, and the Planters-' 
Bank, for refusing an examination on the ground 
that u the Executive had no authority to commis- 
sion them" — (the commissioners.) [Sen. Jour> 
1840, p. 48.] 

The Union Bank denied the right of the com- 
missioners to examine its affairs on, the same 
grounds as previously, viz: that a mode of ex- 
amination was provided by its charter. This the 
governor argues is absurd, because the act incor- 
porating that institution "did not receive all the 
sanctions required by the constitution until the 
5th February,. 183S," whereas the law of 1837 
was operative on all banks afterwards created. 
" It is therefore," says his excellency [p. 49] 
"clear that the bank commissioners had a right 
to examine the Union Bank." The passage 
which follows this we quote as illustrative of the 
affairs of the period : 

s: The State, at the time of the application (of ihe com- 
missioners to examine) was. the sole stockholder— her 
credit had established the institution, and, inasmuch as 
the constitution enjoins upon the executive to take care 
that the laws be faithfully executed, it was of the last im- 
portance that I should ascertain, before signing the 



137 

;e of the bonds, whether the slock taken by the 
■ns of the State, had been secured in the manner 
pointed out in the charter, and the affairs of the Bank 
conducted according to its spirit. I am induced to be- 
lieve, that a large portion ot the property accepted as 
security* for that stock, is incumbered by judgments, 
mortgages and dpeds of trust — that the valuations of the 
appraisers were generally very extravagant — that, in 
many instances, the titles to the'property offered, are yet 
imperfect; and that the whole management of the affairs 
o{ the bank has been disastrous to its credit— destructive 
to the interest of the State, and ruinous to the institution. 
The cotton advanced upon by the Bank in some instan- 
ces, has been attached, and the suits decided against the 
institution. Many of the cotton agents and consignees 
are defaulters, and great loss on the cotton account is in- 
evitable. The post notes issued in violation of law, have 
greatly depreciated, and, if the decision of several of our 
circuit judges are affirmed by the high court of errors 
and appeals, actions: cannot be sustained on a large por- 
tion of "the bills receivable of the bank. The ninth sec- 
tion of the charter, prescribes that the managers of the 
bank shall have power to appoint three commissioner-, 
»gotiate and sell the State bonds. I signed and de- 
livered to the managers, last summer, bonds tothe amount 
re millions of dollars. The President of the Bank 
was despatched Eastward, to make a sale, but was unable 
to effect it. It may well be questioned, whether the spirit 
uf the charter did not require this important negotiation 
to be placed in the hands of three persons, it must be 
conceded that the services of the president at the parent 
Bank, should not have been dispensed with at such a 
-critical juncture." 

It is further stated [p. 50] that, on the 18th 
November 1839, the Executive was informed by 
the Bank that the remaining five and a half mil- 
lions of bonds were ready for signature, and that 
the Executive refused to sign them until after 
the legislature should again have met. Also, that 
the president of the Bank had offered, at all times, 
to furnish the Executive a full view of the con- 
dition of the Bank, and, having demanded such 
a view, a general statement of affairs, not deemed 
minute enough, was furnished. The deficiency 
of information complained of was in relation to 
the quantity of cotton advanced upon, not ac- 
counted for by the agents — the amount sold by 
gnees not accounted for — the number of 
>i 2 



138 

bales attached, &c. Also, the liability of each 
manager and officer, &c. His excellency then 
comes down upon the Bank in this wise: 

" The fact that the managers have smothered the im- 
portant facts called for, proves that culpable misman- 
agement and selfish favoritism have characterized their 
operations. Surely the people have a right to know 
what losses they w ill probably sustain by the operations 
of the bank, and they will, I trust > speak through their 
representatives, in a voice that no one will dare oppose, 
and demand a full view of the condition of the bank. 
If it should be found that many of the officers have been 
relieving themselves at the expense of the community, 
and some of them, in addition, drawing princely salaries. 
I doubt not but that a corrective will be speedily applied.'" 

A subsequent publication, however, showed 
that the "representatives of the people" (i. e. 
the members of the legislature) and good demo- 
cratic ones too, were as deep in the mud of " re- 
lieving themselves at the expense of the com- 
munity," as the officers of the bank might be m 
mire — a little history of the period w r hich may 
be summed up in a very few w r ords, thus — every 
one tried as hard as he could to "save himself 
from ruin" by means of the bank started on the- 
funds borrowed on the faith of the State. Many 
of them succeeded and still have the plantations 
or negroes bought with the money, at par, and 
have paid their notes with the issues of the bank 
at 10, 12 or 15 cents in the dollar, and, moreover, 
are strong repudiators now. 

As an argument to show the indisputable right 
of the people to know the situation of the bank*, 
the following words, worthy of being remember-, 
ed and perpetually recurred to appear in the mes- 
sage at page 51: 

"The faith of the State is pledged for the whole 
capital stock, and the property of all her citizens may 
hereafter be taxed to make up its losses and defalca- 
tions." 

How strange that the proposition that the 
^'constitution would be trampled under foot by 
paying the bonds" had not yet been thought of ! 

Further arguments are advanced to show that 



139 

the bank could not possibly meet its engagements, 
and indeed no stone seems to have been left un- 
turned by the Executive to injure its credit — for 
example : 

• : The Union Bank has certainly failed to answer the 
purposes of ils creation, and I feel confident, (hat even 
with the mo?t able and prudent management, it can 
never hereafter be made useful." 

It is then recommended to the legislature a to 
place the institution in liquidation or to repeal 
all that portion of the charter giving to private 
individuals stock in the bank or privileged loans. 5> 
His Excellency, about that time, might have 
reflected seriously upon the value of the maxim, 
u an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of* 
cure." With his views, as constantly promulged 
by himself, the greatest sin committed w r as his 
signing the original and supplemental bills in 
1838. 

That Mr. M'Nutt was fully bent upon estab- 
lishing and using a repealing power against cor- 
porations, we have seen before; but, in his prin-- 
cipal message to the legislature in 1840, he de- 
votes considerable space to arguing in favor of 
that doctrine. He states [p. 52] that since the 
suspension in May 1837, three examinations of 
the banks had been made — that the reports of 
these show no probability of a return to a sound 
currency, and he adds, "it is now quite certain 
that not a single bank in the State will be able 
for several years to extend any facilities to the 
trade and commerce of the country, or to loan 
money to those who are embarrassed^ This was. 
no doubt, sufficient with some to cause these 
banks to be crushed. They could loan no more 
money to those who were embarrassed^ (at least 
until their debtors paid them up) and, of course, 
it was best to start them down-hill, and for all 
those who owed them to give them a kick. The 
Union Bank's greatest fault is now conceded to 
that it loaned, as Ions; as it could loan at all. 



140 

to those who were "embarrassed," in* preference 
to loaning to those who were able to payback the 
borrowed money ; and thus let its funds find their 
way among the people in a legitimate way and 
with safety to itself. It was however instituted 
to "save the people from ruin," and, with an ami- 
able naivette, which shows the absurdity of sup- 
posing men inexperienced in banking and finance 
generally could successfully wield an immense 
banking capital, it constantly preferred to bestow 
its favors, and did bestow them, upon those who 
were most "embarrassed" and stood more dis- 
tinctly and plainly upon the very verge of "ruin-'' 
than any one else. In fact, it was a well under- 
stood thing that the surest method of obtaining 
a discount was to be able to represent one's self 
as chased closely by sheriffs and marshals with 
executions in their hands. It is true some indi- 
viduals may possibly have been saved from ruin 
in this way, but it is quite plain that the bank 
which followed such a plan must have failed 
sooner or later. The Executive, however, nev- 
er seems to have thought of the right and duty 
of banks to protect themselves, or that such a 
course was the best means of insuring their own 
ultimate safety and, consequently, their real, 
utility to the people- They were no longer able 
to discount for the "embarrassed," and, as no 
more money could be had from them (unless 
their debtors paid up) "down with them — why 
cumber they the earth?" was the battle cry. 
The Governor promulged the fact that not one 
voter out of thirty had obtained stock in the 
Union Bank and asked whether it comported with 
good faith "to render the property and persons of 
forty thousand freemen, liable to be assessed to 
raise money for the especial use of thirteen hun- 
dred citizens, many of them men of great wealth,, 
and none of whom had any peculiar claims to, 
legislative favor?" Not at all: "Repeal" was 
the thing, right or wrong. Down with theyW 



141 

and hurrah for the many, was the watch-word 1 , 
and, of course , it was popular. How could it 
be otherwise ? Every one was to be informed 
— it was to be published m every possible man- 
lier — that all the banks were unable to pay their 
debts — that they never could pay and were en- 
titled to no credit, and certainly there was no- 
better way to reduce this assumption to a fact, 
and deprive them of any credit they might have, 
than to ring out the charge loudly and constantly. 
His Excellency led the way, and, in his eager- 
ness to cut up all banks, root and branch, he 
offered one of the most consummate insults to 
the people of the State that any Governor ever 
dared to offer, or any people ever as calmly swal- 
lowed as did the Mississippians. The following 
outrageous language is to be found in the mes- 
sage, at page 53 ot the Senate Journal. He is 
recommending "repeal," which he seems to have 
been determined to force upon the legislature at 
all hazards : 

: 'The issuing of paper money in contravention of th-3 
repealing act could be effectually checked by the abro- 
gation of all laws now in force making, it penal to forge 
such paper!' 7 

This is the estimate the Governor of the State 
placed upon Mississippi character in 1840 ! On- 
ly remove the human penalty for committing 
forgery, and such would be the number of bank 
note forgeries committed that no bank could con- 
tinue to issue paper ! A fine state of morals,, 
truly. We, for one Mississippian, deprecate the 
impudence and effrontery of such an insinuation, 
and, if the gentleman's own party like his delin- 
eations of Mississippi character, as at the period, 
they appeared to do, vastly, we trust we may be 
allowed to consider him as the spokesman of that 
party exclusively. 

In the annual message of His Excellency in 
1839, he strongly urged the enforcement of "a 
forfeiture in the courts by information in the na- 
ture of a quo warranto aided by the auxiliary 



142 

process of injunctions." [ Vide message of 1840. 
Sen. Jour. 53, where this fact is referred to.] 
This was the frame of the Briscoe bill in the 
space of three lines, and, adds the message of 
1840, "my opinions on this question have been 
confirmed by subsequent investigations." But 
a few lines below we find the following : 

"I trust that suits in the courts to establish the forfeit- 
ure of their charters will not be directed. 5 ' 
And the reasons given are these : 

• : The State Treasury cannot afford the means of em- 
ploying a sufficient number of able counsellors to aid in 
prosecuting the various banks in the State. The suits 
would not be decided in five years. The assets of the 
banks, in the meantime, would be wasted, creditors plun- 
dered, stockholders defrauded and debtors trushe&P 

Taking the whole course of the anti-bank move- 
ment into view, we must regard this solicitude 
for creditors and stockholders as mere affectation. 
At the same time, we profess to be unable to un- 
derstand how debtors were to be "crushed" by 
hanging up their creditors for "five years" under 
injunction. 

There are several sentences scattered through- 
out this message which besides their tendency vi- 
tally to injure the interest and credit of the banks, 
afford practical hints to the favored debtor class 
oi modes of getting rid of their obligations to 
those institutions. For example, at page 54, it 
is stated that "many of the contracts cannot be 
enforced on account of being tainted with usury 
and illegality." 

Some of the banks were at this period endeav- 
oring to pay their debts by assigning part of their 
claims to their creditors. The Governor [p. 53] 
gives due notice of it to the legislature, with the 
hint that, in some instances,- "no doubt it is done 
fraudulently, for the purpose of avoiding the ne- 
cessity of receiving their own money inpayment.'' 
In another place, [p. 55J it is intimated that the 
Agricultural and Planters' Banks are said to be 
transferrins bills receivable to the United State> 



143 

E nment, but the Argus eyes of the Executive 
are upon them, and that "the facts of the case" 
will be ascertained and a special message sent in 
due season. 

So far as the Agricultural bank was concerned, 
k *the facts of the case" were expected from a re- 
port of Dr. James Hagan, who had come into 
the State a short time before, but had subsequent- 
ly rendered himself notorious by an attempt to 
imitate the reckless impudence of Bennett, of the 
New York Herald, in a paper at Vicksburg, of 
which he had become the editor. Like his great 
New .York prototype, Dr. Hagan was famous 
for attacking, without scruple, the characters of 
the oldest and most respectable citizens of the 
country, as though they were the mere mushrooms 
of the hour, of whom nobody knew anything, 
and against whom every thing disgraceful might 
be believed. Success in such an enterprise 
would, at a first view, seem to be impossible, 
but it is astonishing how much may be effected 
by persevering and boldly impudent assertion, 
backed by violent partisans and upheld b} 7 a little 
official patronage. Mr. Hagan had both these 
advantages, — indeed he seemed to be a pet favor- 
ite of Mr. McNutt — and, under the anti-bank 
(or, in other words, the debtor's) banner, the 
slime and filth he poured forth against some of 
the best men in the State might have been suffi- 
cient to supply a fish market for half a century. 
There was, however, no other chance for notorie- 
ty, and, as a mere fly may draw attention to him- 
self by attacking the noblest animals of creation, 
so Mr. Hagan became very much of a character 
among those who admire such means of obtain- 
ing a reputation by attempting to sting the first 
men in the State. The banks, having a no more 
money to loan to the embarrassed" (unless their 
debtors should happen to pay up) afforded a fine 
subject for attack and, in order that there might 
be nothing wanting in the way of "bias" against 



Ahem, Mr. McNutt appointed the most rabid anti- 
bankites in the State commissioners to examine 
them. Of course the reports stood a fair chance 
to be as unfavorable as they could possibly be 
made with any prospect of their being believed. 

Between the governor and this Mr. Hagan 
there appeared to be some strange sort of attrac- 
tion. YVhether his excellency really admired 
and enjoyed the plan of the latter in bringing 
himself into notice by attacking the characters 
©f others, or was in fact influenced and led by 
the nose 01 driven on by Mr. Hagan, under the 
fear of being attacked himself, has been made a 
question which has not yet been fully answered. 
At all events, Mr. Hagan was appointed com- 
missioner to examine the Agricultural bank of 
Natchez, which, like every thing belonging to 
Natchez, seems to have been especially hateful 
to his excellency. Upon this occasion, true to 
his instincts, the commissioner attacked two dis- 
tinguished citizens, and the governor actually 
caught at these charges as though they rejoiced 
his heart, and endorsed them to the legislature in 
his special message accompanying Mr. Hagan's 
report, as though he actually believed there could 
be no mistake in them. 

To these cases it may be necessary more par- 
ticularly to allude for the purpose of showing 
the spirit that actuated the "Democratic Rule" of 
the day, and the means it adopted for carrying 
out its ends. 

The Agricultural bank was at the time of the 
suspension of specie payments largely indebted 
to the federal government and had, when pay- 
ment was demanded, been unable to pay. The 
debt was secured to the government by a bond 
signed by certain individuals, which being sued 
by the U. S. district attorney in the federal court , 
a very common arrangement was made, viz : 
judgment was allowed to be entered, with the 
understanding that execution should not issue 



145 

ecKately, and, i« the mean time, certain 
receivable were to be transferred to the L v 
attorney, with authority to collect them and pay 
the debt. This arrangement, however plain and 
fair and just and usual and business-like as it 
appears and, in fact, was, w r as of course detri- 
mental to the debtors to the bank, to the extent 
of calling upon them, and through that awful tri- 
bunal, the federal court, too, to pay what the// 
mved; whereas it had already been discovered by 
the Democratic Rule that it would be much bet- 
ter for bank debtors to pay nothing at all, but, on 
the contrary, aid in prosecuting their creditors! 
and not only joreseeute, but persecute them out 
of existence. All questions pertaining to bank 
contracts were to be taken from the judiciary and 
made political issues, and the "democracy" were 
to be drilled into letting off bank debtors scot free; 
■the larger portion of them, as usual, being expect- 
ed to do as they were told without knowing 
what they were about or asking any questions. 
Those of them who lived in the bank-indebted 
-counties could, of course, be readily made to 
understand the game, (self-interest being a very 
successful teacher) but the compliment of expect- 
ing a portion of the party to "go it blind" was 
paid to the non bank-indebted counties, which is 
to say, in other words, the North and East, gen- 
erally. And it must be added that the democra- 
cy of those portions of the State have, at length , 
after some little kicking in the traces, scarcely 
worth speaking of, "gone the whole figure" with 
a most exemplary disposition to oblige. Nothing 
could exceed their amiable docility on the sub- 
ject of the Briscoe bill in 1846, even after they 
had scouted it as an unjust and dishonest measure 
Besides this transfer of paper to the United 
States government, which could and would of 
course sue in the federal court, it was found ne- 
cessary to issue post notes and also to execute a 
certain amount of bonds of the bank, to be sold 

N 



14(5 

The latter were placed in the hands of Dr. Ste- 
phen Duncan, one of the securities, to be dispos- 
ed of to meet the debt to the U. S. government , 
or so much thereof as the transferred bills receiv- 
able might be insufficient to pay. The burden 
of the commissioner's Report, echoed and reiter- 
ated by the special message of the governor, ap- 
pears to be the injustice of suing in the federal 
court and relieving the securities of the bank 
by making the actual debtors pay up. The dis- 
trict attorney, Mr. Richard M. Gaines, and Dr 
Duncan are the principal objects of attack. From 
the message [Sen. Jour. 140] we make a short 
extract in relation to the former, though there is 
much more of it worthy of attention. 

"If suits are brought in the Federal Court, the United 
States will be a party to the controversies, and the cases 
will arise under the laws of the United States. The 
district attorney will insist on the court taking jurisdic- 
tion, and the only plea that could be sustained, under the 
circumstances, would probably be, that the claims had 
been fraudulently transferred for the purpose of obtain- 
ing speedy judgments^ for the sole use of the Agricultural 
bank. I do not believe that the National government 
will sanction transfers on bills receivable for such unho- 
ly purposes." 

A most curious cause of complaint is made by 
the commissioner [p. 151] and duly echoed by 
his excellency in his special message. The 
amount of it, as we understand it, is that the 
bank had not enough of circulation out, to be 
bought at a discount by its debtors to pay their 
debts. It would seem that "to that complexion, 77 
it was determined by the Democratic Rule, every 
bank which was not already in so accommodating 
a situation, should "come at last." But to the 
extract: 

"Mr. Gaines has stipulated to take payment from the 
debtors of the bank in the currency recei ved at their coun- 
ter, when payment is offered; but as the bank has only 
ninety-one thousand dollars in circulation on demand, as 
soon as judgments shall be obtained, she can refuse to 
take any currency at her counter except specie and her 
own notes due, and thus compel the transferred paper to 
be paid in specie." 



147 

That the bank could or might refuse to receive 
?ts own post notes at its counter, is a mere sup- 
position of the Reporter and his Echo, the Gov- 
ernor. Of this sort of supposition, there is a 
great deal in both message and report, which from 
the character of the men who managed the bank 
and that of the securities, (who unquestionably 
ought to have been relieved before any other cre- 
ditors) it is not probable was ever even thought 
of by them. The amount of bills receivable 
transferred were upwards of six hundred thousand 
dollars, and the whole amount of post notes out, 
as stated in the Report, [p. 144.] was about half 
that sum. Besides this, there was little probabili- 
ty of judgments being obtained before the post 
notes were due. 

The attack upon Dr. Duncan, one of the purest 
and best men in this or any other State — one of 
the oldest and most respected citizens who, by 
his high honor and open handed liberality, has 
aided as much if not more than any other indi- 
vidual to establish for Mississippi her proud name 
and fame of the olden time, and who, despite of 
the change in the character of the State for the 
worse, remains one of the old landmarks of Mis- 
sissippi honor in its prime, unchanged and irre- 
proachable, was decidedly to have been expected 
from the Reporter, Mr. Hagan, for the very rea- 
sons which we have given; but that Mr. McNutt 
should have quoted and indorsed the very words 
of that person is unaccountable unless the fact be 
ascribed to the sort of blind attachment for, or 
deathly fear of, Mr. Hagan which we have before 
noted on the part of his excellency. We quote 
the governor as he quoted his appointee [p. 134.] 

:t The report of the special commissioner on the Agri- 
;ultural bank is herewith transmitted. It will be seen, 
■ bat every possible obstacle was thrown in his way, and 
that the whole truth could not be wrung from the officers 
of the bank, — the unwilling witnesses he examined. 
While the commissioner was tracing the late nefarious 
post note transactions of the bank, ' Dr. Stephen Duncan, 



148 

an intermediate agent between the bank ? and a commis- 
sion house in New Orleans, entrusted with the sale of 
the post notes, ' removed the correspondence from the 
bank, 7 relative thereto."' 

Now, every man who knows Stephen Duncan 
— and, it may be asked, in what part of the 
State w here good was to be done, or pure patriot- 
ism, philanthropy or benevolence to be exerted — 
where a church or school was to be established, 
and liberal, princely subscriptions were required 
Stephen Duncan is not known ? — knows that no 
man in the Union stands, or deserves to stand, on 
more elevated ground than he does. To defend 
him from this contemptible charge would be an 
act of supererogation, but, since we have alluded 
to the matter, it is right we should add that he 
took care to defend himself instantly. A memo- 
rial was presented to the Senate [Jour. p. 223] 
from this estimable citizen, in which, after quot- 
ing the passage from the special message cited 
above, he says : 

"I am constrained by a sense of what is due to myself, 
as well as by a regard for the opinions ot the wise and 
good, to contradict the statement in the most unqualified 
manner. It is wholly and absolutely untrue in every 
particular. It has not even the shadow of a foundation 
to jest upon." 

The character of Dr. Duncan for veracity is well 
and extensively known, and maybe summed up 
in five words, to-wit: " What he says, is so." 
His reputation is one not to be shaken by the 
hasty charges of violent partisans. 

The whole of this memorial may be profitably 
read with the whole of Mr. Hagan's report, and 
all the hasty Executive indorsements of the lat- 
ter ; but, taking all things into consideration, we 
have given enough to show the character of the 
whole matter and the nature of the "bank war ;" 
and, in fact, so many other incidents in that fa- 
mous and exceedingly patriotic strife occurred in 
1840, that it is out of our power to dwell for any 
time on any particular one of them. 



149 

CHAPTER XIII. 

The indorsements by the governor of the views 
of his commissioner, Mr. James Hagan, men- 
tioned in the last chapter, did not take very well 
with the legislature of 1840. On the contrary, 
his excellency's recommendation that the legis- 
lature memorialize Congress to dismiss the U. S. 
district attorney, Mr. Gaines, from oflice, met 
with a rebuff from reports of committees in both 
houses. Mr. Gaines had addressed a letter to 
the public, completely justifying a\\ he had 
done, which was furnished the committees, who 
asked to be discharged from the matter. [House 
Jour. 404, and Sen. Jour. 411.] Furthermore, 
Mr. Hagan himself fell under the ban of the upper 
branch of the legislature ; for, at page 480 of the 
Senate Journal, we find the following: 

: On motion of Mr. Ives, the consideration of the orders 
of the day was postponed and leave given him to intro- 
duce the following preamble and resolutions: 

Whereas, It appears to the members of this Senate, 
that the Vicksburg Sentinel, a newspaper published in 
the city of Vicksburg, has made, on different occasions, 
the most disgraceful charges against members of this 
body who are fresh from the confidence of the people, 
sometimes upon his own authority and at other times 
the authority of correspondents; and as suspicion has 
placed the authorship of some of the most objectionable 
of said correspondence upon an individual connected 
with this body — therefore, 

Be it resolved by the Senate of Mississippi , That the 
sergeant-at-arms be directed to bring, forthwith, before 
this body, James Hagan, the Editor of the Vicksburg 
Sentinel, and that he be required to establish the crimi- 
nal charges he has preferred against the honorable mem- 
bers of the Senate." 

This resolution was not carried. On the same 
day Mr. Francis Leech resigned his office as 
Secretary of the Senate, and the former secretary, 
Mr. James M. Downs, a whig, was forthwith 
elected. 

Under date of the 30th of January, a second 
special message was sent to the two houses by 
the governor. The first part of this document is 
N 2 



150 

in relation to schools and colleges, a recently 
published map, the distribution of a thousand 
copies of " Cooper's Tactics," &c. &c. The 
message then glides (naturally) into the subject 
of banks. The Executive, it seems, had received 
a letter from the solicitor of the treasury of the 
United States in relation to the transfer of the 
bills receivable of the Agricultural Bank, and 
another from. "the Hon. R. J. Walker," who 
mixes himself up with the opposition to suits in 
the federal court with characteristic energy; and, 
as that gentleman has since made himself re- 
markable for managing the financial affairs of the 
general government with the same signal ability 
and success with which he previously managed 
his own, we think the reader will be instructed 
by a perusal of his letter. We quote from page 
293 of the Senate Journal : 

" Washington City, Jan. 10, 1840. 

"Dear Sir: — Your letter of the 25th, as to the pro- 
posed arrangement with the Agricultural Bank has been 
received. I called immediately upon the Solicitor of the 
Treasury, and he has promised me to countermand all 
suits against ihe bank debtors. Indeed, he says none 
were ever contemplated by him, but simply a deposit of 
the bills receivable of the bank, not for suit, but only as 
alternate collateral security in case of the inability to 
collect the money from the bank and its securities; and 
then only to the amount of $300,000. Some ten weeks 
since, I heard of this proposed arrangement to which you 
refer, and mentioned it to our Representative, Mr. 
Thompson, and declared to him my fixed opposition to 
it, and my determination, should it be persisted in, to 
resist it, if necessary, by bringing the matter before the 
Senate." 

What follows has nothing to do with this sub- 
ject ; but, as it is illustrative of the disposition 
of Mr. W. never to let pass an opportunity of 
self glorification or to wake the echoes with the 
cry of " the South in danger," we give it : 

"ilft/two per cent, bill has passed the Senate, not only 
for the money, bat fur the land. The grant in land and 
money will make the railroad from Brandon to the Ala- 
bama line, and insure the union of the Atlantic and 
Mississippi by railroads. At the request of the delegate 



151 

trom Florida, 1 conceived it to be vuj duty to bring for- 
ward the proposition of the people of East Florida, to 
make two States out of Florida. It has produced much 
g, and seems to portend another Missouri question. 
You will see my remark* in the Globe." 

Yours, truly, 

R. J. WALKER. 
.-. A. G. McNutt." 

His excellency experienced another rebuff to 
the loose charges in his first message in the shape 
of a memorial from judges Sharkey and Trotter 
of the High Court. [House Jour. 76.] The 
statement that that court had decided against 
the rigfht of a creditor of the State to bring a suit 
against the State in the Superior Court of Chan- 
cery, under the act of May 15, 1S33, is denied — it 
having been so decided, but the decision having 
been almost immediately reversed on a re-argu- 
ment, of which his excellency had taken no no- 
tice whatever. The charge of u judicial legisla- 
tion," and that the court refused to hear argu- 
ments, but required cases to be submitted on 
briefs, is also flatly denied. 

The conclusion of this memorial is as follows : 

: V7e cannot close this communication without ex- 
pressing our regret that it has been made necessary that 
we should be thus forced to repel the charges; but. sir, 
a sense of duty to ourselves, a just respect for our com- 
mon constituents, a desire to pieserve untarnished the 
character and dignity of the court in which we preside, 
all combine to make it incumbent on us to show thai the 
facts fully exculpate us from censure. The message is 
a public document— read by every one. The impres- 
sions that the above portions of it are calculated to pro- 
duce, would be unfavorable to the court, and diminish 
confidence in it. "We adopt this course in order that 
such impressions may not be too firmly fixed in public 
opinion, without understanding of their foundation. 
We hope that your honorable body may give such direc- 
tion to this communication as it may seem to meri'. 
a view to effect the desired object. 

We have the honor to be, with high regard, 
Your ob't servt's, 
W. L. SHARKEY, 
JAMES F TROTTER ' 



152 

The efforts of the Executive to take away cor- 
porate rights by a simple repeal of charters, re- 
ceived most notable aid and support from a very 
lucid effort of Mr. Upton Miller, senator from 
Hinds county, who obtained his seat upon a mi- 
nority vote; the whigs of that county, according 
to the usage of their party, having split, and run 
two candidates. 

The best comment upon this remarkably clear, 
legal exposition of the question is itself ; and, 
with the view of giving our readers to judge of 
its merits as a State paper, as illustrative of the 
character of the anti-bank movement of the day, 
and as a specimen of the " constitutional" bom- 
bast of the Democratic Rule, we give, entire, 
the u Preamble and Resolutions" offered by Mr. 
Miller. [Sen. Jour. 57.] 

•'Whereas, lathe first article of the constitution of 
Mississippi, it is declared that all freemen, when they 
form a social compact, are equal in rights, and that no 
man or set of men are entitled to exclusive, separate. 
public emoluments or privileges from the community, 
but in consideration of public services, and that all 
power is inherent in the people ; and all free govern- 
ments are founded on their authority and established for 
'.heir benefit, and they have at all times, an inalienable 
and indefeasible right to alter or abolish the form of gov- 
ernment in such manner as they may think expedient: 

And whereas, Since all free governments derive their 
authority from the people, and are instituted for the 
preservation of their liberty and promotion of their hap- 
piness, and as the functionaries c-f the government, are 
simply agents of power, appointed by the people, under 
a responsibility to perform their will, they, as contra- 
distinguished from the body politic, do not possess one 
particle of power. It follows that all laws which grant 
r o the few the power to oppress the many, are contrary 
to the principles of freedom and repugnant to the rights 
of the people ; and, therefore, repeaiable by the supreme 
authority. 

And whereas, A bank charter, from its nature, extends 
and necessarily confines the powers and privileges 
granted to the few, to the exclusion of the many; there- 
fore, if the powers and privileges granted in a bank 
•barter operates against the public good, it is the duty o% 
the Legislature as the agents of the people to n 
such charters. 



153 

efore, resolved by the Legislature of the State of 
ssi'ppi, That from and after the passage of these 
resolutions, it shall be deemed lawful and competent to 
alter, amend or abrogate any act of incorporation, which 
has been, or may hereafter be, granted under or by the 
iaws of this Srate, or which is or may be found to exi<t 
within the territorial limits of the "same, under any 
name, or for whatever purpose, whenever in the opinion 
of the Legislature, the public good requires such alter- 
ation, amendment or abrogation. 

Resolved, '2d, That the public interests require, and \l 
is a duty we owe alike to ourselves and to posterity, that 
we should arrest the enormous evils of banking in this- 
State by a timely repeal of the charters of such of the 
banks whose condition do not afford a reasonable pros- 
pect of their ability early to recuperate, and also by 
amending the charters of the rest, so as effectually to 
prevent them from again abusing their privileges." 

It would be useless to attempt to argue with 
the reasoning, policy, general wisdom, or even 
with the punctuation of this document, (which 
is a pretty good match for the sense of it,) and 
therefore we leave it to the reader to criticise it 
for himself. The best thing we have seen upon 
the wholesale interference with and violation of 
contracts in which Mr. Senator Miller did (no 
doubt) his best to uphold the u Democratic Rule 5 * 
and its grand expositor, "the Executive," is con- 
tained in a set of resolutions offered by Mr. 
Graves, of Amite, in the House, [Jour. p. 415,] 
and is as follows : 

• : Whereas, by the bill of rights in our Constitution. 
it is declared that no man or set of men shall be entitled 
to '■exclusive'' privileges, except in consideration of pub- 
lic services; and whereas, married men, by the marriage 
.rontract. are entitled to 'exclusive privileges;' and 
whereas, it is the settled doctrine of this Legislature 
that it possesses full and plenary power to annul and 
abrogate all contracts, particularly when the 'privileges' 
growing out of those contracts are of an exclusive 

meter: Therefore, 

M 1. Resolved by the Legislature of the State of Missis- 
sippi, That all marriage contracts heretofore made and 
entered into are hereby declared null and void, and that 
all the rights and privileges attaching upon such con- 
tracts shall immediately cease. 

Resolved, That if any married man or woman 
shall refuse to relinquish the exercise of those exclusive 



154 

privileges guaranteed to theraby the marriage contract, 
he, she or they shall be fined in the sum of five hundred 
dollars, and imprisoned in the penitentiary for a term of 
not less than one year, nor more than five. 

"3. Resolved, That all children heretofore begotten 
under the existence of any marriage contract in this 
Slate, are hereby declared illegitimate. 

"4. Resolved, That the Governor of this State is hereby 
empowered to appoint three commissioners in each county 
to seize the property, real and personal, of all married 
persons, make an equitable distribution of the same 
among the citizens of their respective counties, and 
speedily wind up all marriage contracts, to the end thai 
the people of this State may be able 'early to recuperate' 
and resume those equal rights and privileges guaranteed 
to every man by ( Nature and nature's God .' " 

The first Act passed and approved in 1840 
was entitled "An act requiring the several banks 
in this State to pay specie and for other purpos- 
es." [Acts, ch. 1.] This act limited the cir- 
culation of the banks to three for one of specie 
capital, and forbade any issues until the propor- 
tion of circulation of specie was so reduced. Of 
course the ordinary business of a bank which had 
more than this proportion of circulation out, must, 
under the act, be instantly interrupted. The is- 
suance of post notes was peremptorily prohibited, 
the purchase of stocks forbidden, and contracts 
in relation to cotton "or other commodity," even 
taken "as security or collateral security," declar- 
ed null and void. 

By the 7th section of the act, it was declared 
unlawful for any bank to transfer, by indorse- 
ment or otherwise, any note, bill receivable or 
other evidence of debt, and the penalty was an 
abatement of all suits brought on paper so trans- 
ferred on the plea of the defendant (bank debtor.) 
This section may be termed a clause " to 
prevent the banks from paying their debts and 
from raising the price of their money to par be- 
fore their debtors are ready to buy it at a discount." 
The 8th section fixed days of resumption of 
specie payment on bank bills of different amounts 
as follows — five dollar bills on the first of April 



165 

— tens on the first of July — twenties on the first 
of October, and all others from and after the first 
of January, 1341. By the 9th section, if the 
Presidents, Cashiers or Tellers did not pay spe- 
cie according to this requisition, or, failing to do 
so, did not indorse on the bills the date of presenta- 
tion, &c, they were to be fined $1000 and im- 
prisoned three months. 

The 10th section of this act perhaps exhibits 
one of the most barefaced attempts of high hand- 
ed power on the part of one distinct branch of a 
government, in seizing upon the power and at- 
tributes of another, ever witnessed. Compel- 
ling bank officers to indorse their bills as required 
in the preceding section, whether they were 
compelled to do so in such an emergency as ex- 
isted, under their charters, or not, under pain 
of fine and imprisonment was only a part of this 
intended tyranny which, by the way, turned out 
to be a farce. We quote the first and most im- 
portant clause of this famous 10th section entire. 
"That whenever the Governor, either from the certifi- 
cate of the President, cashier or teller, as aforesaid, or 
by ajjido.vit of the holder of any such note, bill or other 
evidence of debt, shall be satisfied that such presentment 
has been duly made, and payment refused, he shall forth- 
with issue his proclamation, declaring that said corpora- 
tion has forfeited all its banking powers and privilege^.'" 

The only alternative to this executive judgment, 
was that any bank might surrender its charter 
within four months after the passage of the act, 
one condition of which was that it should extend 
"indulgence to its debtors" for one, two, 
three, four, five and six years ! And in case 
of either "proclamation" or "surrender," the gov- 
ernor was to appoint a commissioner, &c, we sup- 
pose by way of preventing the executive office 
from falling into a powerless condition for the 
want of having patronage and emoluments to be- 
stow upon favorites, or, according to an argu- 
ment of his excellency on a previous occasion, 
by way of diminishing executive influence. 



156 

If politicians in other States can tell how the 
very best banks in the Union, if situated in Mis- 
sissippi, could have weathered the crisis under 
such legislative and executive interference and 
assumptions, the people of the State would doubt- 
less be glad to hear from them before they draw 
a comparison between their own banks and those 
fated institutions subject to "the Democratic 
Rule" in Mississippi. 

This was the grand "Remedy for the Times" 
par excellance, of the session of 1S40, as shown 
by the published acts of the legislature. The 
next is Chapter 5, and is entitled u An act to pro- 
vide for the valuation of property and in relation 
to mortgages and trust deeds." 

The last named act provides that property le- 
vied on by sheriffs shall be appraised, and, if it 
does not bring two thirds of its appraised value, 
shall not be sold, but the execution returned to 
the next term of the court, and that no other shall 
issue until twelve months thereafter — the worst 
kind of a stay law by which creditors were thrown 
back 18, and (if well managed) 24 months in the 
collection of their debts in judgment. 

The provision in relation to mortgages and 
trust deeds is of the same character. It forbids 
the parties to those instruments to incorporate 
any powers of sale therein to authorize a sale 
without giving six months notice by advertise- 
ments posted up in three different public places 
in the county and also in a newspaper, &c. 

The 5th section of the act requires the debtor 
to give bond for the delivery of personal property 
restored to him when it does not sell for the ap- 
praised value; but, should he be unable to give 
the bond, the sheriff is required (by the 8th sec- 
tion) to sell at twelve months credit, taking bond 
for the payment of the same, &c. This bonding 
system was a great game in Mississippi at the 
period, the history of which fully warrants us in 
stating that if a debtor could only get his property 



157 

back into his hands, ami substitute a bond, it 
was nine times in ten, a dead loss to the creditor ; 
for, no matter how "good" the security seemed 
to be, or was represented, when the bond was ta- 
ken, the lapse of 12 months, in about the pro- 
portion we have stated, would render it good for 
nothing. 

The chance for a creditor getting his money, 
even after judgment, out of a debtor in Missis- 
sippi up to the period of which we write might 
be this : if he sued a note on which only the 
fourth indorser was good, it might be two years 
before he could levy on his property. When he 
did so, a forthcoming bond was given returnable 
to the next term — 6 months more — when an ex- 
ecution was issued on this, it might be, as we have 
just seen, two years more, under the valuation 
law, before he saw his money — say four and a 
half to Jive years after judgment ! 

Will the reader believe that this was not con- 
sidered enough^ and that the legislature of 1840 
actually threw another six months in the way ? 
If not, let him turn to the acts of that year, Chap- 
ter 74, when he will see that a full term of the 
court (six months interval) was given defendants 
to plead. The history of this act is a little cu- 
rious. Many believed the forthcoming bond sys- 
tem a bad one, not on account of the delay it 
occasioned the creditor particularly, but for vari- 
ous reasons. A petition was therefore signed 
and presented to the legislature praying the aboli- 
tion of forthcoming bonds and the substitution of 
a term to plead, which gave the same time to the 
debtor he would gain by giving a bond, (6 months) 
before judgment instead of afterwards. This, 
the petitioners thought would be better for defen- 
dants, as they would thereby have the same time 
in the aggregate, and without the trouble and 
difficulty of giving security. The legislature, 
however, were fully bent upon "saving the peo- 
ple from ruin" altogether ; and, while it granted 



158 

the imparlance term (as it is called) with great 
cheerfulness, it rejected the rest of the petition and 
held on to the forthcoming bond system besides. 
With all these impediments in the way of credit- 
ors generally (in which class were included those 
poor devils, the banks, which had to stand them 
all, in addition to all the special legislation against 
their either getting any thing from their debtors 
or paying their own debts) and the abolition in 
full of special terms of the courts, of imprison- 
ment for debt without the intervention of a jury, 
of attorneys tax fees, and various minor mat- 
ters, the executive and legislative branches would 
do doubt have felt exceedingly comfortable, un- 
der the belief that they had u saved the people 
from ruin" to a considerable degree, had it not 
been for that Mordecai, sitting perpetually "in 
the King's gate and refusing to do them rever- 
ence," the Federal Court. That institution, 
however, remained a terrible bug bear, and after 
some talk of "abolishing the United States court," 
through an act of the State legislature, by a 
certain democratic senator, &c, &c, that body 
did make a move against it in the shape of "res- 
olutions instructing and requesting our senators 
and representatives in Congress to procure the 
passage of an act of Congress reducing the fees 
of the officers of the United States within this 
State," [Acts ch. 153] the first of which is as 
follows : 

"Be it resolved by the legislature of the State of Mis- 
sissippi, that the fees of the officers connected with the 
Courts of the United States in this State are unreasona- 
ble and oppressive in the highest degree, and should be 
reduced." 

Chapter 160 of the Acts of 1840 consists of a 
request to the Hon. S. J. Gholson, judge of the 
United States Court, to adopt the Valuation Law 
as the practice of that court. 

The session of 1840 is somewhat remarkable 
for its benevolence in affording the national coun- 
cils the light of its wisdom on various subjects. 



159 

Among other "resolutions" and "memorials" for 
the benefit of Congress, we find one set of the 
former, "relative to the embarrassed condition of 
the State, the importance of the adoption by 
Congress, at its present session, of the Indepen- 
dent Treasury Bill, and instructing our Senators 
in Congress to vote for the passage of the same." 
[Acts ch. 151.1 We copy the 1st, 5th and 8th 
of these, in order that the people may test the 
opinions of their representatives in 1840 by the 
light of that experience which the progress of 
events has since shed upon the subject : 

"1st. Resolved that the legislature of the Slate of Mis- 
pi, Thar, in the opinion of this legislature, the 
greit and primary cause of the prevailing embarrass- 
ment and pecuniary difficulties of the country is to be 
found in excessive banking, under the authority of the 
general and State governments: that paper issues by 
oank corporations, purporting to be the representatives 
of money, in their very nature, tend to the seduction of 
individual and national industry from its natural and 
legitimate pursuits: converts honest enterprise into a 
spirit of wild speculation; engenders public and indi- 
vidual extravagance and looseness of morals; leads to 
-every species of gambling, and begets overaction in 
every branch of business: that these are melancholy 
signs of the present times, and that they have kept pace 
with the increasing redundancy of paper issues for 
several years past. 

,: 5th. Resolved, That, believing that the connection 
of the government with the banks exerts a deleterious 
influence upon the industry of the State of Mississippi, 
this legislature is of opinion that the Independent Treas- 
system, with the specie clause, should be adopted at 
the present session of Congress, and that our Senators 
be instructed and our representatives requested to vote 
tie same." 
(The 7th resolution expresses "full and entire 
confidence in the talents, integrity and patriotism 
of Martin Van Buren, the chief Executive mag- 
istrate, &c.) 

!. Resolved, That our senators in Congres> 
: y instructed, and our representatives requested, to 
support, in good faith, the leading measures and policy 
as heretofore brought forward and advocated by the 
President of the United States, and use all fair 
proper exertions to carry out and sustain and accomplish 
the same." 



160 

This eighth resolution is about as fine a speci- 
men of toadyism as ean be often met with — a 
whole delegation in Congress "instructed" and 
"requested" to support all the leading measures 
of a national administration! What more could 
have been asked by a national administration 
which professedly, in the elegant language of its 
partisans, required its supporters to " go the 
whole hog? " 

In order to express a further and most emphatic 
preference for that sage measure, the "Indepen- 
dent Treasury Bill" (with the "specie clause") 
it was solemnly resolved, [Acts of 1840, ch. 50.] 
to censure the Hon. John Henderson, Senator in 
Congress, for voting against it, and to request 
him forthwith to resign his seat; also, that he de- 
served, "for conduct so self-willed and anti-repub- 
lican^ the sternest rebuke." In this connexion, 
it may be profitable to remember that the demo- 
cratic party itself afterwards scouted the idea of 
the "Independent Treasury," and has done near- 
ly the same thing again, quite recently. 



CHAPTER XIV. 

It is scarcely necessary to say to the Missis- 
sippi reader that the acts of 1839, proposing to 
issue five millions of bonds for general purposes 
of Internal Improvement and one million to aid 
the Commercial and Railroad Bank of Vicksburg 
in completing its road, which, under the con- 
stitution, required the action of a subsequent 
legislature, were not re-passed in 1840. On the 
contrary, the joint committee of both houses 
[Vide House Journal 412] reported against the 
project; but, in judging of the spirit and policy 
which actuated this abandonment of those wild 
schemes of 1839, one principal reason for the 
conclusion, as revealed by the Report, should not 
be lost sight of, viz : there was no probability of 
any such bonds of the State of Mississippi bemg 
sold 



161 

The "internal improvements 5 ' which wer^ 
consume five millions of the six, dissolved into 
air, and the Board, which was to lay out the 
money, probably evaporated, inasmuch as, we 
believe, nothing has since been heard of it. As 
to the Commercial and Railroad Bank ot Vicks- 
burg, it did the best it could — completed its road 
by the old rule of " by hook or by crook;" but 
assigned it, so that there was an excuse for not 
receiving its own bills for freight or passage upon 
the road, and made three assignees, providing for 
them the enormous salaries of eight thousand 
dollars each, so that all the receipts which were 
not absorbed by the interest of the enormous cost 
of the road might be completely consumed. At 
least, there is no other apparent excuse for the lat- 
ter piece of extravagance, while it may be regard- 
ed as giving vitality to the outcry against u as- 
signees," "trustees," &c, which has so long been 
one of the chief political engines of the democra- 
tic press of the State. 

After this abandonment of the system of internal 
improvements, it may occasion the reader no 
little surprise to refer to chapter 147 of the acts 
of 1840, which purports to be a memorial from 
the Legislature (duly approved by the governor) 
to Congress, asking for a quantity of lands, and 
offering, among other arguments in favor of the 
donation, the following : 

" The State of Mississippi is engaging in a general 
system of internal improvement, which has for its ulti- 
mate object, not only the improvement of our rivers, 
but the penetration of the interior of our State by rail- 
roads, intending to connect them with like improve- 
ments in other States, which, when completed, will not 
only promote the great interests of agriculture, com- 
merce and social intercourse between citizens of differ- 
ent States and bring them to bear upon individual and 
national prosperity, but without changing our State and 
federal relations, will form a chain of iron, binding to- 
gether by community of interest and social rela 
and feelings, the sisters of our happy confederacy." 

We much regret to say that, if there ever was 
° jch "general svstem" or any sijstem what- 
o 2 



162 

ever, having any defined or definable " ultimate 
object," (except that of relieving debtors from 
their liabilities) owing its paternity to, or fostered 
by, the Democratic Rule in Mississippi, for two 
sessions together, it has been utterly lost and ex- 
tinguished, leaving no trace behind it. The 
political movement of the government is empha- 
tically hap-hazard. The memorial proceeds with 
another half page of the same, as follows : 

"As a means of the national defence, by the facility 
which they (the internal improvements composing this 
system) will afford for the transportation of men and 
munitions of war to points vulnerable to attack by an 
enemy, they recommend themselves to the favorable 
consideration of the patriot and the statesman. These 
roads, when completed, as is now contemplated, in con- 
nection with other States, will connect the Mississippi 
river at Vicksburg and Commerce, in our own State, 
and at Memphis in the State of Tennessee, with Savan- 
nah in the State of Georgia, and Charleston in the State 
of South Carolina, and, by the chain now contemplated 
through the State, from South to North, our Gulf coast 
with New Orleans, Natchez and Vicksburg will be con- 
nected with the most populous division of Tennessee; 
and, indeed, either by the continuation of the line, viz : 
Nashville, to Louisville, or by the Tennessee and Ohio 
rivers, the States of the Ohio valley will be brought into 
more immediate connection with our Southern border/* 1 
&c. &c. &c. 

The memorial "therefore" politely asks "that 
a law be passed, relinquishing to the State of 
Mississippi all the unappropriated lands of the 
government in this State for the purposes of in- 
ternal improvement," but seems to dwindle down 
into a very common-place affair, having, at least, 
the look of an attempt at political and pecuniary 
speculation, when we read the following words— 
"giving to the State the power to graduate the 
prices of said lands that our poor citizens may 
be afforded the opportunity of obtaining homes," 
&c. &c. Indeed, experience teaches us to look as 
suspiciously into the measures of the modern de- 
mocracy whenever it seems particularly anxious 
about the "poor" man, as when it makes a spe- 
cial outcry about the "constitution" 



163 

Perhaps the experience of the impaired "cha- 
racter and credit" of the State which the Demo- 
cratic Rule had felt, through their management 
of the State finances, of the Union Bank ques- 
tion, and of the bank itself, (for no one can deny 
that the one was as badly managed as the other,) 
and which had opened to the view of the joint 
committee on internal improvement the fact that 
nobody would buy any more Mississippi bonds, 
induced that phantom fear of debt which caused 
the legislature of 1840 further to extend its very 
valuable advice to Congress by resolutions [Acts 
ch. 155] on the subject of the State debts gener- 
ally, by which the Senators and Representatives 
of the State in the national legislature were re- 
spectively instructed and requested "to vote for 
the resolutions introduced into the Senate of the 
United States by Col. Benton, disapproving of 
the assumption by the general government of the 
debts of the different States" — a party trick of 
that very distinguished man, blustering partisan 
and would-be distinguished military chieftain 
(with political consequences) Colonel, or, it may 
be, General Benton; inasmuch as nobody but a 
single representative in the other house of Con- 
gress had proposed, advocated or approved any 
such measure as that he thought it politic to 
make a show of disapproving. However, some- 
thing in the shape of a compliment may have 
been due to a character who had promised that 
gold should flow up the Mississippi and shine 
through the silken interstices of the purses of his 
especially humbugged disciples in the State — • 
which gold, by the way, has never yet arrived, 
but is now represented by Tennessee, Louisiana 
and Alabama "bank rags." 

The plan of repealing bank charters was tried 
in the case of the Brandon Bank in 1840 [ch. 
121.] The charter, so far as the action of the 
Legislature and Executive could do it, was "ab- 
solutely repealed, revoked and made Yoid," and, 



164 

in case the officers of the institution should refuse 
to transfer the effects to the trustees, &c. , any 
judge might be applied to and he was to grant 
an injunction, make certain orders, &c, and, in 
case of non-compliance therewith, the officers of 
the bank were to be committed to prison until 
they did as ordered. It is further enacted [Sec. 
11] that "should any person undertake to act as 
president, cashier, director or other officer, &c, 
he shall be deemed guilty of felony and sentenced 
to two years imprisonment in the penitentiary." 

A special act of justice is contemplated by the 
10th section of this act, viz: that the debt due 
the State by the bank should be paid to "the ex- 
clusion of other creditors," though, by section 
13, "any creditor," &c, "may sue any one or 
more of the stockholders, and may recover out of 
his or their individual estate the amount of debt 
due," &c, — a mere show of ivords. 

Of course (and it is altogether probable, by 
way of diminishing executive influence) the 
governor had the appointment of a trustee, or 
trustees, and at the rate of fifteen hundred dollars 
per annum each. The company might also ap- 
point one, if it chose to do so within a month, 
but not afterwards. 

Attempts were also made to repeal the charter 
of the Union Bank, but without success. Taking 
advantage of the fact that the majority of the 
legislature (i. e. the democratic portion) were in 
favor of this repealing power, with or without a 
clause reserving the right in charters to corpora- 
tions, a select committee of the House, to whom 
was referred "so much of the special message of 
the governor as relates to the bonds of the State 
stock in the Planters' Bank," [House Jour. 867,} 
made a report, in which it is stated that "but one 
of two alternatives is left for providing means to 
discharge the liabilities of the State and preserve 
inviolate her faith and credit. " The first of these 
i& said to be "onerous taxation." which the com- 



165 

mittee reject on account of the still prevailing 
pecuniary distress — the other, in accordance with 
which the committee recommend a law to be 
passed, relates principally to the Union Bank, 
and is as follows : 

"1. The repeal of banking powers, and the placing 
her under the management of five directors for liqui- 
dation. 

2. A repeal of so much of the charter as authorizes 
the issuing of bonds of the State for the use of the bank. 

3. An authorization to the directors to use so much 
of the $5,000,000 of bonds now held by the bank as may 
be necessary in taking up, by exchange at par, the notes 
and other liabilities of the bank. 

4. An amendment requiring the directors to extend 
one, two, three, four and live years to the debtors of the 
bank, upon their executing good and sufficient security 
upon the renewal of their notes. 

5. An authorization to the Governor to draw upon 
the bank from time to time, for such sums as may be 
necessary to provide at maturity for the payment, in the 
places where payable, ol the "interest and principal of 
any bonds of the State, and to pay the same in par funds 
as the same may become due, and for that purpose to 
use the assets of the bank arxl the sinking fund as the 
same may, from time to time, be realized. 

6. An authorization to the bank to pay her notes on 
demand only in specie, and to discharge her other lia- 
bilities by the bonds of the State now held by the bank : 
provided the bonds shall not be used in liquidation of 
the debts of the bank for less than the par value upon 
their face, and shall be received at such par value in 
payment of debts due the bank." 

The committee state that they are aware that 
serious doubts are entertained in regard to the 
constitutional power of the legislature to repeal 
or modify the charter, without the consent of 
the individual stockholders, and acknowledge a 
diversity of opinion on that point among their owd 
members, but add, "as no other mode has been 
suggested by which the State can be enabled to 
discharge her liabilities and preserve unsullied 
her character and credit, and, it is believed a ma- 
jority of the House maintain the constitutional 
right to amend or repeal said charter," they re- 
commend that the standing committee on banks 
currency report a bill in accordance with the 



166 

above programme. The House, however, re- 
fused to concur with the report, and, soon after, 
went into an election of State directors of the 
Pnion Bank, and let her go on. 

The Executive vetoes of 1840 relate princi- 
pally to private bills passed for the reliet of 
delinquent officers of the government and to 
lotteries. The former were right in principle, 
but seem to have been the effect of a general 
rule laid down, and without sufficient discrimina- 
tion between the cases. At least, so thought 
the legislature, who re-passed some and yielded 
to the veto as to others. The vetoes upon lot- 
teries, (which were effectual) seem to us to have 
been entirely correct — especially as those lotte- 
ries presented the new feature of being conducted 
upon "the credit system;" some sanguine indi- 
viduals offering to go into the measures and give 
their notes for the prizes. [ Vide House Jour. 
953 and 959.] His Excellency considered lot- 
teries "nothing more nor less than gambling, on 
a large scale," and we agree with him against 
the credit system being introduced into any spe- 
cies of gambling and that it would be extending 
that system "to an extent unheard of in any age 
or in any country," for the government to sanc- 
tion it. 

Another veto is upon a bill to repeal the 21st 
section of the Union Bank charter, which allows 
15 per cent, damages on the refusal of specie 
payment. The bill was not re-passed. 

The } 7 ear 1840 is remarkable as being the 
epoch at which the striking financial talent and 
skill of the "Democratic Rule" ran the State 
absolutely and utterly out of money, insomuch 
that the means could not be raised even to pay 
the legislature. At page 851 of the House 
Journal, we find the following Report — memora- 
ble from the facts it discloses, but which facts 
are not at all singular, but the usual and natural 
effects of pretension and ignorance being entrusted 



167 

with matters requiring statesmanship, a know- 
ledge of the science of government, experience, 
caution, sagacity, prudence, skill and tact. 

' Mr. Speaker. The standing committee of Ways 
and Means, to whom was referred the resolution of the 
Senate requiring the committee to devise some means 
to pay members and officers of the legislature for thei; 
services, have had the same under consideration and 
have instructed me to report that the State has not at 
this time any available means in the treasury, and that it 
is beyond the financial ability of the committee to devise 
any manner by which means can now be had— they would 
therefore pray to be discharged from the further consid- 
eration of said resolution, and would respectfully sug- 
gest to the legislature and officers thereof, that, in their 
opinion, and the present exhausted condition of the treas- 
ury, the most laudable course is to return to their homes 
and await the ability of the State to meet their claims.'' 
Experience has shown that nothing worse 
could have occurred than has, had every legisla- 
ture since the commencement of the Democrat- 
ic Rule remained in "their homes" and allow- 
ed the old and respectable laws of the State 
to have been the guide of her people. As it 
was, the Union bank was looked to in the emer- 
gency we have described, and it was attempted 
to authorize the State Treasurer to "negotiate a 
loan" with that institution. A committee of the 
whole house reported in favor of it [House Jour. 
854] when a former bank commissioner, notwith- 
standing that the legislature was "hard up," in 
a fit of desperate bank hatred, moved to strike 
out all after the word "resolved," and insert 
"that it is not expedient for this State to borrow, 
or attempt to borrow money from any bank." 

If he had used the words "not possible," in- 
stead of "not expedient," and inserted the word 
"good" before "bank," it would not have been 
very far from the truth, though probably the 
amendment would not have been sustained, as 
"the Rule" seem ever to have had faith in the 
maxim, "all things are possible." One member 
moved to amend the amendment by adding "ex- 
cept the Union bank, if beinga State institution;" 



168 

but the House, on a division of the questioft, re- 
fused to strike out at all, and desperately hung on 
to the dying "old Brindle," as that famous demo- 
cratic institution was called, and is still called by 
those repudiating genii, who, to carry out the 
elegant simile, sucked her dry. 

Nothing could be more edifying than this 
floundering of pretended statesmen, who, with 
their new notions of finance, had first dried up 
the resources and ruined the credit of the govern* 
ment, and then penned themselves up in a financial 
corner from which they saw no mode of egress ; 
but it seems to have had no effect upon the ex- 
tremely cohesive party they represented. It is 
perhaps due to the committee of ways and means, 
however, to commend their honesty in acknow- 
ledging that they had no "financial ability" to 
move a peg farther, and that the State had come 
to a stand-still. Such was, in fact, the pass to 
which the Mississippi Democracy had brought 
affairs in 1840, and from which it arose two years 
afterwards, like a Phoenix from the ashes, in the 
full radiance of Repudiation ! Thus was it 
"the Rule" vindicated its ability to govern — its 
profound science — its unmatched and unmatcha- 
ble statesmanship ! — And this — O tempora ! O 
mores ! this was the sublime axiom which re- 
sulted from its whole course — this> $§* When, 
by bad management, ignorance and party mad- 
ness, you have exhausted both money and credit, 
let those having the sovereign power, swear the 
State does not owe the debts she has contract- 
ed and that it would be unconstitutional to pay 
them ! 

It certainly could do no Mississippian, of any 
party or faction, any harm to pause and reflect 
calmly on these things, and, should he dislike our 
mode of putting them together, it would be 
worth his while to read the Journals and Acts 
of the "nine years," for himself, with due at- 
tention, aad contemplate thoughtfully the causes 



169 

therein unfolded, which have thrown his State 
into her present attitude before the world and his 
posterity. Let him then look around him and 
proclaim to his fellow men of all countries the 
reasons (if he can find any) for her continuing 
in the same routine of humbug policy and, by 
upholding the actors in such a system, also con- 
tinuing to trample her once proud and honorable 
name in the dust of the earth. If he can find 
no such reasons, then we ask him, in all earnest- 
ness, why shall he not cast aside all minor consid- 
erations, blow party to the winds, and unite with 
those who are willing and ready to make a strong 
effort to place Mississippi where she was pri- 
or to the wild surging over her of that party sea 
which has washed away her u character and 
credit?'- 

With these suggestions to our fellow citizens, 
we take leave of the year 1840, sincerely regret- 
ting that much the worst part of the actings and 
doings of "the Democratic Rule" have yet to 
be examined in detail, 



CHAPTER xv. 

The year 1842 is one to be mourned in sack- 
cloth and ashes by the people of Mississippi, as 
giving birth to what are commonly called the Re- 
pudiating Resolutions; but the year 1841, as that 
in which the plot teas hatched, and the way pre- 
pared for consummating that shameful act, and 
moreover as affording the evidence as to who was 
the real author of that disgraceful scheme, is one, 
the political events of which are full of melan- 
choly interest to the true well wisher of the State,, 
though it be true that the legislative history of 
the year affords a bright spot or two. 

The first message of his excellency, A. G. 

McNutt, governor, &c, to the legislature of 

1S41, opens the political history of the year, and 

we, as a faithful historian of the period, feel our- 

p 



170 

self compelled to pronounce that document a 
moral outrage — a disgrace to the State, to the age, 
and to human nature — a curse, in its inception and 
its effects — utterly beneath the dignity of a sove- 
reign State — especially unworthy the previous 
character of Mississippi; a document which, had 
it been rightly served, would have been publicly 
burned in the streets. 

The effect to have been expected from such 
legislative and executive action as had previously 
prevailed, is, by this message, duly disclosed. 
Nearly four hundred thousand dollars of Auditor's 
warrants had been refused payment by the trea- 
surer for want of funds — the ordinary expenses 
of the past year had, like those of several pre- 
ceding years, exceeded the receipts, and by up- 
wards of fifty thousand dollars — the United 
States Bank, for the honor of the State and of 
American credit abroad, had paid nearly one 
hundred and twenty-five thousand dollars of in- 
terest on the Planters' Bank bonds, and, of course, 
demanded reimbursement — the first instalment 
of the principal of those bonds was coming due 
in a short time, and the Mississippi Railroad 
Company, which was to pay it, was utterly pros- 
trate, while the Planters' Bank had been entirely 
released from providing for the payment, by the 
foolish act, transferring its stock to the Railroad 
Company, which we have previously noticed. It 
is undeniable that the financial affairs of the State 
were in the most unsatisfactory condition and 
the prospect of the future gloomy enough. Yet, 
what had a sovereign State, full of resources 
which God had given and man might not take 
away, — one whose name and fame had been like 
those of the once proud young State of Missis- 
sippi, and which were not utterly gone, but lin- 
gered around her sons yet, like a glorious halo, 
seeming unwilling to depart — what had she, we 
ask, to do, in such an emergency, but to discard 
evil counsels, step boldly forth in the still exist- 



171 

nig but tattered mantle of her ancient honor, and, 
with her heart in the right place, say to strangers 
give us a little time, and to her own wealthy citi- 
zens, lend us your aid to he honest 1 What sacri- 
fices would not have been made, if such a spirit 
had been manifested, such an example set, by her 
Rulers, to sustain her under all the trials to 
which improvidence and error had subjected her? 
Who, among her creditors, would have refused 
her indulgence, or who, among her sons, would 
have cavilled at opening his purse to her and 
allowing her to help herself to its contents, either 
in the way of loans or taxes ? 

Such was not the course of her governor or his 
adherents in office. They took no pains to up- 
hold her credit, her honor, or her good name — 
'hey moved not one solitary hair's breadth to- 
wards encouraging or reviving the state pride 
she had once felt, and which could have aroused 
her sons to an exertion which would have made 
her equal to any emergency — they were given up 
to selfishness and the demon of party — ay, that 
party , as to which, we ask of every one, what, 
in the name of God and Justice, has it ever done 
for the State ? 

The head of that party — the governor — the 
man in the position to do more for his State than 
any other Mississippian — what did he do in the 
emergency? Look at his message of 1841. 
Read it, and say why, if the old Mississippi 
spirit and soul of honor were not gone — had not 
been strangled by such Rulers as the State had had 
for three years — there was not some man in that 
Legislature to seize upon that insulting document 
and, tearing it in tatters, stamp it in the dirt of 
the earth, as it tore to tatters, and stamped and 
spat upon the honor of the State ? 

That accursed document first seriously and 
officially recommended Repudiation — it was a 
miserable, contemptible, pettifogging attempt at 
special pleading, forsooth, to show how a Sove- 



172 

reign State might legally fight off pecuniary 
claims upon her ! a mental reptile, " crawling 
upon its belly upon the ground," like its great 
prototype, and seeking to tempt to sin on pretexts 
so shallow that the faintest breath of true prin- 
ciple could blow them to the four winds; breath- 
ing nothing — not one word — of Honor or of 
Right, but hiding its hideousness under the sha- 
dow of " the law," which its moral slime and 
venom polluted, and its very breath poisoned — 
appealing insidiously, on such a question, to the 
pockets of an oppressed people and for party effect , 
at the very moment when every true patriot 
should have forgotten party, and offered to the 
masses every incentive to preserve the honor of 
the State intact, to remember their glorious old 
state pride, to persevere in the right, and not be 
cast down. Such is the duty which Rulers, in 
such a crisis, owe to God, the State, their con- 
stituents, and to themselves, as men. 

Let any one imagine the picture this once noble 
State would now have presented to his view, if 
her rulers had been thus faithful to her in that 
dark hour — if, by their firmness in adhering to 
principle, they had induced the people to follow 
their example, encouraged their drooping spirits, 
and cheered them on in the path of rectitude. 
Contrast it with the moral degradation and de- 
basement which has followed the treason to her 
best interests of A. G. McNutt and his repudi- 
ating adherents. Where is the man who prefers 
what is, to what might have been, had the rulers 
of the State done their duty, instead of deserting 
her and giving her over to the demon of avarice 
in her extremity? What is a paltry five millions, 
ay, or seven millions, and "with interest thereon," 
in the comparison ? 

Every possible objection that could be saved 
from utter contempt by calling it "constitutional" 
or "legal," old or new, overruled or likely to be 
so by courts, is raked up to beautify that beautiful 



173 

production, the Executive message of 1841, 
and prove the following assumptions: [House 
Jour. p. 25.] 

"1st. The "Bank of the United States is prohibited 
a charter from purchasing such stock either direct- 
ly or indirectly. 

M 2d. It was fraudulent on the part of the bank, inas- 
much as the contract was made in the name of an indi- 
vidual, when, in fact, it was for the benefit of the Bank, 
and payment was made with its funds. 

'3d. The sale was illegal, inasmuch as the be 
were sold on a credit. 

' c 4'h. Interest to the amount of about $170,000 hav- 
ing accrued on those bonds before the purchase of mo- 
ney was stipulated to be all paid, the bonds were in fact 
sold at less than their par value, in direct violation of 
»he charter of the bank." 

And fifth, say ice, here is Mississippi, by her 
u chief magistrate," picking Jlaws, like a con- 
temptible justice's-court pettifogger, to evade 
the obligations of a sovereign State and wrong 
her creditors ! We have heretofore given the 
history of the sale of the Union Bank bonds, 
and we would not defile our paper in insulting; 
l .he State by arguing the question with this re- 
creant Mississippian on quirks, flaws and quib- 
bles. The only proper question for a Sovereignty 
in such a case is, was the money had or not? 
And that, every man can answer for himself. 
The statement of these quibbling propositions is 
followed by an apparent anticipation, a fear, that 
the remaining sparks of State pride might kindle 
into an endeavor to do rightly, and this is duly 
met by the subjoined disgraceful paragraph : 
U R no doubt will be contended that, inasmuch a? ; 
bonds may have passed into the hands of innocent 

j, the State is bound to redeem them. This argu- 
ment vanishes when it is considered that, under our 
Ues, all defences may beset up against an endorsee 
be available against a payee." 
The " statutes" (or statute) here referred to 
regulate transactions between individuals, and 
the evident straining manifested in brirg 
forward as a rule of law in a case bet'. 

e and her foreign creditors is a pitiful piece 
? 2 



174 

of pettifogging, utterly beneath the dignity of 3 
Sovereignty, which, being above the power of all 
jaw, save that of force, is the more bound in 
honor and equity to abide by the law of nature 
and of nations. And yet this is Mississippi. 
speaking by her chief executive officer — Missis- 
sippi, through her governor, refining upon quirks 
— pleading specially — to avoid paying her sealed 
obligations, like some cut-throat shaver ! And 
this spokesman for Mississippi too, be it never 
forgotten, was A. G. McNutt, the very man 
who signed the charter and supplemental charter 
of the Union Bank, signed the bonds also, caused 
the great seal of the State to be affixed to them, 
and paid them out — the very last man on God's 
earth who could, with any modesty or consistency y 
have one word to say in favor of repudiation, 
even it were a defensible, instead of an utterly 
damning doctrine to any people who embrace it, 

The paragraph last quoted from this unrighte- 
ous message is shortly succeeded by the follow- 
ing puling grandiloquence, which has furnished the 
repudiating press with the foundation of all its 
high sounding "constitutional" and "legal" advo- 
cacy of what every unprejudiced man sees, upon 
a first glance at the question, to be a dishonest 
and swindling course on the part of the State: 

"The Executive of the State has never admitted the 
validity of the sale of the State bonds — neither the Ex- 
ecutive, Senate, House of Representatives, nor all of 
them combined, could ratify an unconstitutional pledge 
of the faith of the State or an illegal sale of the bonds/' 

(That is to say, the "unconstitutional pledge" 
%vhich this same "Executive" officially approved 
and signed, and " an illegal sale" which, if he 
had seen fit to call in the "statutes," could only, 
under their application, prevent the recovery of 
the interest, and not of the principal of the debt. 
But let us follow out this magnificent strain to 
the end:) 

"The constitution would be of little value if it could 
be trampled upon loith impunity , and unborn millions 
loaded with a debt contracted in opposition to its express 



175 

provisions. Oar ancestors, after a struggle of eight 
years' continuance, conquered their independence ol 
Great Britain, because that Empire sought to impose a 
small tax upon tea without their consent, to aid in ex- 
tinguishing the heavy debt incurred in wars carried on 
j r protection against our French and Indian neigh- 
bors." 

(Booh! And then see the application to the case 
in hand—that of a debt due by the State of Missis- 
sippi, contracted by herself under her own seal.) 

'The Freemen of Mississippi are not so degenerate 
as to submit to heavy taxation to pay a claim not con- 
tracted in accordance with their supreme law I ;> 

One might think from this and other stuff like 
it, to be seen occasionally, that the "constitution" 
forbade returning borrowed money and made it a 
high crime for the State to pay her debts, or that 
the spirit of that instrument was to enable the 
State to borrow money and excuse her from pay- 
ing it back ; and it might seem that the "supreme 
law" of governor A. G, McNutt was in contra- 
vention of the eternal laws laid down by the 
Supreme Being! The allusion to the revolution- 
ary epoch is a regular part of the role of this 
spurious democracy, whose orators never fail 
to use it when advocating schemes which it 
would have made the men of that era blush to 
think of. Had he been able to lug in the quota- 
tion, "the times that tried men's souls," to 
induce the cowardice which made men afraid 
to try even their purses for the honor of their 
country, it would doubtless have called forth 
the unbounded admiration of all those patriots, 
who preferred keeping their money in their pock- 
ets to being taxed for the true honor of their 
State, their own good name, and the ultimate 
good of themselves and their posterity. 

This patriotic appeal is followed up by an at- 
tempt to dissuade the people jrom making any 
effort to sustain the credit of the State. This is 
done by means of making up as large an account 
as possible of the State's indebtedness, and draw- 
ing a terrible picture of taxes- As to the latter, 
14 hear him f" 



176 

•I trust the day is far distant when the light of Heav- 
en, the fire that warms us, the bread we eat, the clothes 
we wear, ail articles of produce and every necessary ot 
life will be taxed to pay a demand founded neither in 
justice nor equity ." 

This is going a step beyond any thing of the 
kind we have seen. If his excellency had con- 
fined himself to the "constitutional" and "legal" 
quirks and quibbles he had hunted up, his assump- 
tions would have fyeen sufficiently fallacious; but 
to assert roundly, that when a state sells her 
bonds, sealed with her seal, signed by her gov- 
ernor and treasurer, under a law of her legisla- 
ture; when she purchases bank stock with the 
proceeds of those bonds, receives the scrip for 
the bank stock, and deposits the same in her se- 
cretary of State's office, as her property, she is 
not bound in justice or equity to pay her bonds, 
even in the hands of "innocent purchasers," is 
an act of impudent and reckless assurance which 
should cause us to look with suspicion upon every 
allusion from the same source to subjects so 
sacred. The very assertion is a pollution .and 
defilement of the words "Justice" and "Equity.' 
The message proceeds as follows : [p. 26.] 

''Should the legislature differ with me in opinion, and 
resolve to i mpose a sufficient, tax on the persons and prop- 
erty of a» the people of the State, to pay the interest on 
the State bonds, and to provide for the principal as it 
falls due, the following sums must be provided for at you t 
present session. n 

An account succeeds, in which the first item 
is $.124,222 22 advanced by the Bank of the 
United States on the Platiters Bank Bonds — an- 
other item is $125,000, the first instalment of 
those bonds due in the following July — another, 
the interest accumulating in 1841 and 1S42 on 
Planters' and Union Bank Bonds, &c, &c, ali 
of which, together with exchange, $25,000 of 
interest on unpaid interest (excellent management 
of the "Democratic Rule") and $400,000 of 
unpaid (and unpayable) auditor's warrants (most 
inimitable statesmanship of the same "Rule") 



177 

make a sum total of a million and a half. I he 
manner of arraying these items, with the accom- 
panying remarks, are such as to show an impos- 
sibility of paying, to discourage the legislature 
from making any attempt to provide for it, and 
encouraging that body to repudiate the debt. No 
plan is suggested by this great democratic statcs- 
vian (God save the mark!) for obtaining an ex- 
tension of time, paying or providing for paying 
any part of these debts except the $400,000 in 
Auditor's warrants, which it is proposed to fund 
and pay interest upon, and in which he and the 
rest of the officers of "the Rule" were paid their 
salaries. To speak the truth freely, we believe 
Mr. McNutt to be a man wholly unequal to any 
such financial emergency in state affairs; and while 
he may be excused for this, it being a want of 
talent, there is no excuse for his attempt to hide 
his want of financial knowledge and skill, by en- 
couraging the 'representatives of the people to 
tripe out the whole difficulty by repudiation. Ay r 
repudiation of both the Planters' and Union Bank 
bonds, though he had not yet arrayed the flaws 
as to the former; for he does not offer any sug- 
gestion as to providing for the instalment on the 
Planters' Bonds then soon coming due, nor does 
he even propose to provide for the payment of 
that portion of the debt which the Bank of the 
United States had advanced "for the honor or 
the State of Mississippi and the maintenance of 
American credit," without having, and never 
having had, (as the president of that corporation 
in his letter to the governor [House Jour. p. 8S.] 
states) "any ownership or interest, direct or col- 
lateral, in the bonds or coupons" — circumstances 
which rendered it the imperative duty of the 
State to pay the claim at any sacrifice of mere 
money. So far from being actuated by any such 
consideration, however, appears Mr. McNutt, 
that, on the other hand, he continues to dwell up- 
on the difficulties in the way of doing any thing 



178 

of the sort, and not only that, but to raise difficul- 
ties at every turn. He speaks of no plan of re- 
newal or obtaining an extension of time, but 
contents himself with harping upon the immense, 
or, as it would seem from the message, insur- 
mountable difficulties of taxing the people for it, 
or even collecting the tax within the requisite 
time! Nay, he does even worse; for he gives the 
people the hint not to "elect representatives who 
will impose it, or tax gatherers who will collect 
it!" We give him the benefit of the effect of 
his own words upon our readers: 

"In the event of the passage of a law during this ses- 
sion to raise the above sum by taxation, it would have 
to be assessed the present year, and could not be collect- 
ed before the Spring of 1842; and the taxes of 1842 
would not be available until the Spring of 1843. I have 
not therefore over-estimated the amount required. As 
the taxes are increased, insolvencies will increase also, 
and subjects of taxation be greatly diminished; for if 
(hey become intolerable, the State will depopulate. H 
new subjects of taxation are not resorted to, each tax 
payer in the State will have to pay twenty dollars where 
he now pays one. Such an enormous tax can never be 
collected from the hard earnings of the people of this 
State. They loill not elect lepresentatives who will im- 
pose it or tax gatherers who will collect it" 

Thus ends the opening message of 1841, with 
governor A. G. Mc Nutt's estimate of the char- 
acter of Mississippians, who, bad as immoral 
legislation might have made them, we know 
were grossly libelled by those unworthy words. 
Besides this, it will be perceived that the worst 
possible aspect was given to facts; for it can be 
demonstrated that twenty dollars for one of the 
present tax will nearly pay the whole indebted- 
ness of the State, with all the accumulated in- 
terest up to this time, while nothing is wanting 
but the evidence of an honest and determined 
resolution to pay it, on the part of the people, to 
obtain fifty or a hundred years time to do it in.* 

*The assessment, of the State tax in 1844 (the last year to 
which we have any means of referring) on real and personal 
estate, amounted to $421,610 53, which, multiplied by 20, would 
he nearly eight and a half millions. Some deduction must, of 



179 

The "impossibility" of paying the State debt 
then, urged by some, and the idea of "depopula- 
ting the State" in the attempt, urged by Mr. Mo 
Nutt in 1841, are the veriest scarecrows and 
humbugs ever set before so intelligent a people to 
frighten them from their duty. 

While on the subject of this "message" of 
1S41, we may mention that there are other por- 
tions of it almost equally disgraceful to the State 
with that which paves the way for that "consti- 
tutional"and u legal"inventionofthe Arch Fiend, 
Repudiation. 

By the act transferring the State stock in the 
Planters' Bank to the Mississippi Railroad Com- 
pany, which the governor had duly approved and 
signed, we have seen that the former institution 
was released from providing for the payment of 
the State's indebtedness upon the Planters' Bank 
bonds and the latter company substituted to per- 
form that task. That company however was by 
this time (1841) utterly broken up, prostrate 
and helpless, and the governor, (although subse- 
quent events have shown that he and his adher- 
ents were actually in favor of repudiating the 
Planters' bonds, as well as the Union) in the 
plenitude of his enmity towards, and evident de- 
termination to harrass the Planters' Bank as 
much as possible, writes to the president [House 
Jour. 92.] as follows: 

"Inasmuch as the holders of the State bonds sold hy 
the Planters' Bank were not parties to the act troMsfer- 
ring the State sleek to the Mississippi Rail Road Com- 
pany, and have never given their assent to the same, I con- 
sider the Planters' Bank bound to the holders of thosf- 
bonds for the payment of both principal and interest 
thereon. The State bonds delivered to the Planters' 
Bank were payable to the order of that institution, and 
it \sbound by its endorsement to the holders of the same. 
I therefore request you to advise me whether the bank 

course, be made from the amount of assessment , for the expense 
of collecting, to wit: the commissions of the tax collectors, i.iit 
we make no cllowance for defalcations of tax collectors, inas- 
much as tee see no occasion for so many defaulters being elected 
to office, though "the Democratic Rule" and its adherents inn v. 



180 

over which you preside is using any efforts to pay the 
arrearages of interest now due on said bonds, and to 
provide for the interest accruing hereafter thereon, end 
to pay the instalment of one hundred and twenty -five 
thousand dollars due next year." 

Here, again, was the once proud State of Mis- 
sissippi trying the effect of a. legal quibble to avoid 
the payment of her own debts, and moreover, to 
throw the loss of her own bad bargains on a mere 
indorser for her! Such conduct in an individual 
would be execrable, but in a sovereign State it is 
too contemptible even for execration. Under 
the utterly nugatory act of 1840, providing for 
the dissolution of corporations by executive "pro- 
clamations," Mr. McNutt actually ran the State 
to the expense of issuing such nullities in sever- 
al instances and paying certain party newspapers 
for exposing such legislative and executive stu- 
pidity to the world by means of advertising them! 
A greater farce in government perhaps never 
marked any State before or since, and it was up- 
on these designing but ignorant projects for sup- 
porting its partisans and strengthening itself, that 
the u Democratic Rule" squandered thousands 
even in the already desperate condition of the 
State treasury! Among other banks, against 
which these humbug "proclamations of forfeiture' ' 
were issued, was the Union; and, as the reply of 
the president of that bank properly meets and, 
upon constitutional grounds, overthrows the law 
which may with justice be termed "an act to en- 
able the Executive to pronounce judicial judg- 
ments, on ex parte evidence, without the inter- 
vention of judges, juries or counsel, and for ren- 
dering the Executive, as far as possible, the su- 
preme Ruler of the State," we shall give it. — 
[Vide House Jour, of 1841, p. 84-5.] 

Miss/ssiPPf Union Bank. J 
Jackson, July 15, 1840. ) 
His Excellency. A. G. McNutt, 

Governor of the State of Mississippi : 
Sir — Your Proclamation, declaring that the Mississip- 
pi Union Bank has forfeited all its banking powers and 



1S1 

privileges, accompanied by a note requesting to be no'.i- 
fied when the bank-will appoint a commisioner,in r 
ance of the requisition of the 11th section of the act re- 
-.ig the several banks of this State to pay specie and 
.her purposes, has been received and considered. 

I regret that the bank feels constrained from a sense 
of public duty to disregard the provisions of chat act. 
The charter of the bank is a contract, and contains, in 
its own terms, the extent of the obligations of the par- 
ties to it. 

Any attempt on the part of the legislature of the 
State to enlarge or restrain, or in any manner whatso- 
ever; to alter these, is in violation of that provision of 
the constitution of the United States which declares 
that no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation 
of contracts. 

That act, moreover, undertakes to erect the execu- 
tive of the State into a judicial tribunal, tohear evidence, 
and adjudge thereon, and is in violation of the first and 
second sections of the second article of the constitution 
of this State, which declares that the 'powers of the 
government of the State of Mississippi shall be divided 
into three distinct departments, and each of them con- 
fided to a separate body of magistracy, to- wit: those 
which are legislative, to one— those which are judicial, 
to another — and those which are executive, to another — 
and that no person or collection of persons, being of one 
of these departments, shall exercise any power properly 
belonging to either of the others.' 

The conclusion of the bill of rights, also declares 
that ail law contrary to the provisions of the constitution 
shall be void. 

However willing, therefore, others may be to violate 
the constitution, both of this State and of the United 
States, the directors of this bank cannot consent to become 
participants in the responsibility of the outrage, by be- 
ing in the slightest degree accessory to the crime, and 
therefore decline to make the appointment contemplated 
by that law. 

i: Whenever one department of the government at- 
tempts to usurp the powers of another, and by destroy- 
ing the constitution, to subvert the government itself, the 
duty of resistance to the usurper is a condition annexed 
?o the birthright of every American citizen. 
f have the honor to be, 

Very respectfully, 

Your ob't serv't, 

J. B. MORGAN. PresH. 

Having, as we have seen, in a former message, 
commenced an attack upon the courts — the es- 
pecial subjects of the hatred of tyrants in all 



.182 

countries^ his excellency again strikes a blow ai 
the High Court. The excuse offered is the state 
of financial affairs, which is said to be such as to 
demand retrenchment, and the first subject of 
retrenchment which seems to suggest itself to 
the mind of the governor is cutting down the 
salaries of the judges of that court, notwith- 
standing that the duties they had to perform were 
constantly on the increase, that they had been 
receiving State warrants in pay for their services, 
and that the market price of those warrants was 
only thirty-five cents for the dollar. In this con- 
nexion, it is to be remembered, too, that the sala- 
ries of certain administrative officers of the gov- 
ernment had been increased — one or more of them 
even so late as at the preceding session of the 
legislature and that, at this very session of 1841, 
the governor calls for an increase of the salaries 
of his bank commissioners ! It may be remark- 
ed that the whole course of modern democracy 
has been to lessen the judicial power and increase 
that of the other departments of the government 
t— especially the executive branch, and that 
nothing can so quickly and certainly paralyze the 
judiciary, by substituting mere legal pretenders 
and political partisans for judges of sterling ta- 
lents, as this same system of cutting doivn their 
salaries. The attempt in Mississippi was not 
original — under the empty "democratic" cry of 
^retrenchment and reform," (which has never 
amounted to any thing practically, that party 
leaving always increased expenditures when they 
came into power) these blows have repeatedly 
been struck at the judiciary; but it is to be re- 
marked, that while the Mississippi democracy 
has never originated any thing in politics enti- 
tled to the name of an improvement, its leaders 
have never failed to urge the adoption of the 
very worst innovation, and an imitation of the 
most outrageous conduct of the party elsewhere. 
We do not recollect anv doctrine of the irretrieva- 



t)ly and utterly "locofoco" or "subterranean'" 
school, however absurd, disgusting, dishonest, 
destructive or disorganizing in its character, or 
whether or not invented by Mike Walsh or Cap- 
tain Rhinders, to suit the tastes and feelings of 
the lowest scum of creation to be found loafing 
about the docks or rejoicing in the respectability 
of ''the Five Points" in New York, which at 
least the press of "the Democratic Rule" has not 
urged upon the respectable yeomanry of Missis- 
sippi as essential parts of the true democratic 
creed, to be cherished in their heart of hearts; 
whereas, in fact, such things were never dream- 
ed of and would have been utterly scouted by 
the fathers of the democratic party as disgraceful 
heresies. Nor have the prominent and leading 
men of the ultra or McNutt faction of that party 
been very far behind their press, if they did not 
in fact give that press its cue. When will that 
really and truly respectable yeomanry see, that 
what precisely suits the views of the lowest rab- 
bles to be found in large seaboard cities is unfit 
for and beneath them ? 

It is due to the Legislature of 1841, to state, 
Und we are proud to have it to record) that, so 
far from sustaining the views of the Executive 
in relation to repudiating the Union Bank bonds, 
they passed two sets of resolutions, one origina- 
ting in each house, utterly repudiating repudia- 
tion, and vindicating the honor of the State 
against the rough and disgraceful assaults upon 
it made by the governor in his message. The 
Senate resolutions [Jour. p. 312] are as follow, 
and should be written in letters of gold. Let 
the reader note them well : 

"L Be it resolved by the Legislature of the State of 
Mississippi. That it is the sense of this legislature that 
The character, the standing and true glory of the Stat* 
depend upon the sacred inviolability of its engagements, 
iind therefore repudiate the recommendation contained 
20 the message of the Executive, not to pay the bonds of 
the State. 

Be it further resolved] That the State will fully 



184 

recognize and acknowledge her obligation to pay the 
bonds of the State, amountiug.to five millions of dollars, 
sold in 1838 to N. Biddle, Esq., and will, (if the same 
shall become necessary by a failure on the part of the 
Mississippi Union Bank to provide for them,) make 
every exertion to provide for the payment of both prin- 
cipal and interest as the same may become due." 

The first clause of the first resolution, (ending 
with the word "engagements") was passed unan- 
imously by the Senate. The remainder passed 
17 to 13, receiving the negative of the following 
Senators, to-wit : Messrs. Alsbury, Duke, Fox 9 
Gilleland, Granberry, Hughes, Love, Marshall, 
Mathews, Thomas, Tucker, Walton and Watts 
The second resolution was passed by a voteuf 
19 to 11, Messrs. Duke and Granberry, who had 
voted against the last clause of the first resolu- 
tion, voting for the second resolution. 

In the House [Jour. p. 416 — 17] both these reso- 
lutions from the Senate were carried by the sweep- 
ing majority of 50 to 30, despite of " divisions of 
the question," proposed /'amendments," &c. 

The House resolutions [Jour. p. 249] are as 
honorable to that body as the former were to the 
other branch. They are as follow : 

"Resolved, That the State of Mississippi is bound to 
the holders of the bonds of the State of Mississippi, is- 
sued and sold on account of the Planters' and Missis- 
sippi Union Banks, for the full amount of the principal 
and interest due thereon. 

"Resolved, That the State of Mississippi will pay her 
bonds, and preserve her faith inviolate. 

"Resolved, That the insinuation that the State of 
Mississippi would repudiate her bonds and violate her 
plighted faith is a calumny upon the justice, honor and 
dignity of the State." 

These resolutions came up in the House on the 
27th of January. A motion to postpone the con- 
sideration of them was lost by a vote of 75 to 12, 
and various amendments, (proposed by Messrs. 
Acker, Besangon, and others,) all lost, by large 
majorities. The first resolution was passed by 
the decided vote of 52 to 30. The second was 
so clearly carried in the affirmative that the ayes 
and noes were not called for. The third resolu- 



185 

was carried by a vote of 48 to 25. [House 

ir. 324 to 329.] 

The Senate, when the House resolutions were 
considered, [Jour. 314] divided the question 
upon the first and adopted it, so far as related to 
the Planters' Bank bonds, unanimously ; so far 
as related to the Union bonds, it was passed by 
the heavy majority of 20 to 10. The vote upon 
the adoption of the second House resolution (that 
Mississippi will pay her bonds, &c.,J was, ayes 
29, nays not given — there could have been 
one nay, and it was probably a unanimous vote. 
The third House resolution was also adopted 
unanimously. 

Both sets of resolutions, then, were adopted by 
heavy, overwhelming majorities of both Houses- 
some of them, as we have just seen, unanimously 
in one branch of the legislature — and yet we 
have to tell our readers that they may search un- 
til they are blind, turn over all the leaves, and 
even split leaves, in the published acts of 
Legislature for 1841, and they will not be able to 
get a glimpse of one of these honorable, high- 
minded and truly patriotic resolutions ! Why? ay, 
why? That question should be answered. Was 
it because Alexander G. McNutt did not approve 
of them and did not wish them published? lie 
refused to sign them, and sent in, on the last day 
but one of the session, a sort of a veto message 
in relation to the House resolutions, in which 
however, he argues that such resolutions did not 
require the executive signature under the consti- 
tution. If so, then they were already complete, 
and should have been published, at all events, as 
the act of the Legislature ; but, as we have said, 
no sign of them is to be found in the published acts 
of the session of 1S41. Mr. McNutt and the 
public printer, we suppose, must have decided 
the question between them, and chose to suppress 
such honorable testimonials of the character ot 
the State, as she then vet was of, God bless htr^ 
Q 2 



186 

and to let the Executive alone speak for her, 
and ruin her reputation forever ! She was to 
be subjected to his will, and it has been done ! 

This quasi veto message is as ridiculous, and, 
as a State paper, as contemptible a production as 
any which has emanated from the same pen on 
the same subject ; and, although it requires some 
further notice from us, we must postpone the 
consideration of it for the present. Suffice it to 
say, ad interim, that the House laid it on the 
table and refused to print it, and that its best co- 
temporary commentary is to be found in a set of 
resolutions offered by Mr. Watkins [House Jour. 
506] which show the feeling created by it, but 
which there does not seem to have been time left 
to discuss. They are as follow : 

"Resolved, That his excellency, the Governor of this 
State, in his message this day communicated to this 
House, has clearly demonstrated that he, himself, is 
justly to be viewed as the author of all the mischiefs 
which have befallen the people of this State in conse- 
quence of the operations of the Mississippi Union bank, 

"Resolved, That had his excellency, as aforesaid, act- 
ed in strict conformity with the requisitions of the law 
incorporating the Mississippi Union Bank, he would 
never have executed or delivered to the said bank any 
of the State bonds whatever, until all the subscriptions 
by individuals, as contemplated in the charter, had beer. 
made, declared and secured by mortgages, according to 
the true intent and meaning of the act of incorporation. 

"Resolved, That the message aforesaid is a tissue of 
folly, absurdity and wickedness, and justly deserves the 
condemnation of all honest and discreet men." 

What, then, became of the Senate resolutions ? 
The Journals do not tell us. Perhaps that body 
viewed the matter of executive action upon such 
resolutions as the governor did, and did not tender 
them to him for his approval or signature. If so, 
why w r ere they not published in the Acts of the 
Legislature ? Or were they tendered to the 
governor who, believing he was not required to 
act upon them, stuck them in his pocket, instead 
of returning them to the Senate ? In either case, 
why were they not sent forth to the world as an 
act of the Legislature ? We must think it was 



because the governor assumed the high-handed 
power of suppressing the expression of the Le- 
gislative voice on the vital suhject of the char- 
acter of the State and determined to be supreme 
ruler and spokesman for her in the face of Chris- 
tendom. And a pretty character, truly, has lie 
given her ! Shall he, and such as he, continue to 
speak for her and give her such character as they 
deem fitting ? God forbid ! 

Let us look a moment into the real cause of this 
conduct, and we shall find that the sacrifice of the 
State's honor was made to the demon of party. 
The presidential canvass of 1840 in the State had 
resulted in favor of the Whig candidate, the la- 
mented Harrison. A desperate effort was to be 
made to preserve their waning ascendancy by 
that same " Rule" which had mismanaged 
affairs of the State until her treasury w 7 as bank- 
rupt and the whole machine of government dis- 
organized, while the people, whom it had utterly 
failed to relieve, were still harrassed by creditors 
and the officers of the law, and suffering the most 
trying pecuniary distress. The latter circum- 
stance was taken advantage of — meanly, Great 
God ! haic meanly ! and, for the purpose of keep- 
ing up a mere party — mere dust in the balance — 
the pocket was appealed to, and the honor, the 
welfare, present and ultimate, and the reputation 
of the State, were offered up a sacrifice, by selfish, 
heartless office holders ! 

And those who did this deed, style themselves 
patriots! the only true and pure democracy ! 
Better, ten thousand times, were any State with 
such patriotism and such democracy at the great- 
est imaginable distance. It is counterfeit, spu- 
rious, forged. 



CHAPTER XVI. 

The Executive message of 1S41, relating to 
the resolutions of the legislature, declaring the 
indebtedness of the State to the bond holders, to 



188 

which we alluded in the preceding chapter, 
[House Jour. 491 to 504] claims a few remarks. 
After stating that they "are not such resolu- 
tions as are intended to be embraced in the 16th 
section of the 4th article of the constitution," 
and declaring that he is "at a loss to determine 
upon the subject of presenting such resolutions 
for executive sanction, " the Governor proceeds, 
Tp. 492] to taunt the legislature for not provid- 
ing the means for paying up the whole indebted- 
ness of the State due and as it falls due, at once. 
And this is in the teeth of his message, delivered 
at ihe opening of the session, which discloses that 
the treasury is utterly bankrupt, that the tax col- 
lectors are still defaulting in large amounts, and 
that the effect of previous legislation had been to 
throw the whole financial interests of the State 
into the utmost disorder and confusion ! Mark 
the following passage, in which the italics are 
his excellency's — not our's. 

"I cannot for a moment suppose that it was expected 
those resolutions would satisfy the bond holders, with- 
out provision being made at the present session to pro- 
vide for the faithful redemption of the promises therein 
contained. I cannot suppose that the legislature will 
adjourn without enacting a law providing for raisins, 
by taxation, a sufficient sum to redeem the plighted faith 
of the State as understood and declared by the House." 

He also taunts the legislature with having 
done nothing previously to pay the bonds, &c. — 
that is to say, during the pecuniary distresses of 
the State — a matter which he had, in previous 
messages, neither advised nor even encouraged, 
and in regard to which, he had suggested no 
modes of payment ; but, having informed that 
body that there were "novel" questions present- 
ed, &c, left the same to their "wisdom," &c. 

The wounded sensibility of his excellency, who 
treats the resolutions of the legislature, declaring 
that Mississippi id// pay her debts, as an insult 
to himself, leads him to offer to resign — that is, on 
such conditions as he knows cannot be complied 



169 

with — a contingency, so to speak, utterly impos- 
sible. We quote from page 504 r and the italics, 
this time, are our own. 

-If the Senate and House of Representatives will, 
before they adjourn, pass a bill providing to raise, lu 
taxation, a sum sufficient to pay, punctually, the interest 
oo the seven millions of State bonds and the several in- 
stalments as they fall due, I will return to the people the 
high office I have received by their suffrages." 

Now, considering this was the last day but 
one of the session — that the Governor had in 
his opening message drawn an awful picture of 
the horrors of taxation and made out a startling 
account of the amount of the debt — and that he 
had expressed his opinion that "the people" 
would not elect representatives who would im- 
pose a sufficient tax, or tax gatherers who would 
collect it — this, for so seemingly liberal an offer 
of sacrifice, seems to be sufficiently guarded. 
Nevertheless, had the legislature met this defi- 
ance to them to act honestly with the right sort 
of spirit, it would have prolonged its sitting, ta- 
ken him at his word, and let him "appeal to the 
people." There was, however, too much of 
"the Rule" in the composition of that body for 
such an act of independence and moral courage. 

Notwithstanding he thinks the resolutions are 
such as do not require executive action, his ex^ 
cellency makes out thirteen mortal pages of a 
quasi veto message upon them, by inserting 
what he is pleased to term a "review and defence" 
of his w r hole course in relation to the Union bank 
and the Stats bonds, and seems to chuckle at the 
House for being so silly as to give him an oppor- 
tunity, by its resolutions, to place this "review 
and defence" upon its journals. From this boast, 
one is led to look for a most scathing and wither- 
ing affair, unanswerable in its arguments, and full 
of the most astounding conclusions. On the 
contrary, however, no man, perhaps, ever more 
completely "used himself up" in a "defence" of 
his own writing, since the art of writing was 
invented. Let us review a part of this "review. 1 ' 



190 

Fiist and foremost, the writer shows that there 
was no reason why the Planters'* Bank bonds 
should not be paid, and afterwards [p. 504] ac- 
tually says : 

"I never have informed the legislature that I did not 
consider the State bound to pay the interest on those 
bonds as it came due and the instalments as they ma- 
tured !" . 

Very well : the people will doubtless be glad 
to be informed whether he has since informed 
any one that the State is not bound, and have 
only to recollect his speeches in his electioneer- 
ing tour in 1845, as a candidate for the office of 
United States Senator, to be assured that he has. 
He however adds : 

''Being well assured that the honor and dignity of the 
State was always safe in the hands of the Representa- 
tives of the people, I submitted the novel question to 
their w r isdom and justice." 

A pretty fair example of non-committal. He 
further says : 

" I feel anxious that this exciting question shall come 
fairly before the people!" 

The most that could be or has been made of 
opposing the payment of the Planters' Bank 
bonds, was a constitutional objection — a proper 
subject for the judiciary, and one with which 
,c the people" {dear creatures) had nothing to do. 
He however got it before the people in his can- 
vass of the State for United States senator in 
1845, to such an extent as to be signally and most 
righteously defeated; showing that "the people" 
were not as bad as he took them to be. As to 
the question being an "exciting" one in '41, the 
Legislature had just declared, by an immense 
majority in the House and unanimously in the 
Senate, that the Planters 1 Bank Bonds ought to, 
and should be paid ! 

It would seem quite evident that Mr. McNutt 
was an ingrained and out-and-out repudiator of 
all the bonds from the beginning. He seems to 
have preferred that the State should not pay her 
debts, but not to have thought it politic to declare 



191 

himself thus on the Planter s } Bonds quite yet 

As to his u review and defence 1 ' of his course, 
so far as it relates to the Union Bank and the 
honds issued for stock in that institution, it is one 
of the most self condemnatory reviews and lame 
defences imaginable. In the first place, he says 
that "national politics controlled the election of 
1837, and that the principles of the Union Bank 
bill were not discussed in many counties;" and 
yet, immediately afterwards, he says that, " as 
the members of the legislature (of 1838) were 
elected long after the measure had first been in- 
troduced and submitted to the people for their 
ratification, and they were in favor of it, he was 
hound to take their action as conclusive, and there- 
fore signed the bill!" Their action was certainly 
very "conclusive" as to one fact, viz : the mea- 
sure was popular, and therefore, of course, it 
was his interest as a political partisan, to sign it. 

Nevertheless, this was the man who no more 
minded exercising the veto power when it suited 
his purposes, on grounds of constitutionality or 
expediency or, in fact, on any ground, than snap- 
ping his fingers — the man who had fairly rained 
down vetoes on the legislature, in a continuous 
shower, ever since he had been in office ! So 
much for the original charter — now for the sup- 
plemental bill. Hear him : 

"During the same session, the supplemental act was 
submitted for my consideration. Although I had strong 
d'tvbts of the constitutionality and expediency of the meas- 
ure, after mature deliberation, I came to the conclusion 
to approve the supplement!" 

Of course* if he had not, he could not have 
been re-elected. He however intimates that he 
was "not very clear and decided" as to the un- 
constitutionality; but then again, in his opening 
message in 1841, he talks very "clearly and de- 
cidedly" of ''an unconstitutional pledge of the 
faith of the State." He therefore must have got 
rid of his indecision in the matter and decided 
the supplemental bill to be unconstitutional. 
Now, mark how he comes out. 



192 

A principal objection urged in the opening 
message of 1841 is the "illegal sale of the bonds." 
How illegal ? Why, because the supplemental 
bill (and it alone) imposed restrictions upon the 
sale of the bonds which, it was contended, had 
not been regarded. The original charter impos- 
ed no such restrictions, and it is so stated in the 
message on the bond paying resolutions [p. 496.] 
Then, for this purpose, and for any purpose of 
preventing payment of the bonds, the supplemen- 
tal bill was constitutional, and for any purpose 
of paying the bonds, it was ttflconstitutional ! 
That this was the real argument is further illus- 
trated by an assertion [p. 496] to the effect that, 
if it is true that the supplemental bill is unconsti- 
tutional, and it is contended that, therefore, the 
sale was valid, because not violating the original 
cherter, why then, since the proceeds of the 
bonds were to be applied as directed by the supple- 
mental bill, the issue was unconstitutional, and 
so the State was not bound to pay them for that 
reason ! 

The "review and defence" then might have 
been summed up in a few words addressed to the 
holders of the Union Bank bonds thus: "We ob- 
tained your money, spent it, and mean to keep it. 
We are clothed with sovereign power and will 
do as tve please. We have no objection to amuse 
you with a few quirks and quibbles; but, serious- 
ly, we have but one standing rule on the subject, 
to wit : Heads tve win, and tails you lose!" 

Not content with arranging it so that the dear 
"people" can keep the borrowed money in any 
event, this very ardent patriot proceeds to abuse 
the holders of the bonds like pick-pockets because 
they are the holders! We quote from page 502. 

"The bank, [i. e. the Bank of the United States] I 
have been informed, have hypothecated these bonds and 
borrowed money upon them of the Baron Rothchild; 
the blood of Judas and Shylock flows in his veins, and 
he unites the qualities of both his countrymen. He has 
mortgages on the silver mines of Mexico and the quick- 
silver mines of Spain, He has advanced money to the 



193 

Sublime V security a mortgage apon 

. -:y city of Jerusalem and the Sepulchre of our 
our. It is for the people to say whether he shall 
ha\ r e a mortgage upon our cotton fields and make serfs 
or children. Let the Baron exact his pound of 
fiesh of Mr Jaudon and the Bank of the United States, 
and let the latter 'institution of our country' exact the 
same of the Mississippi Union Bank. The honor, jus- 
tice and dignity of the people of this State will not suffer 
them to interfere in the bankers' war." 

Now, if a more puling, sickish, detestable 
rodomontade ever was addressed by the Execu- 
tive to the legislature of a Sovereign State, it has 
never been our evil fortune to be pained and dis- 
gusted by seeing it. It is utterly contemptible — 
beneath criticism in its sentiment, style and al- 
lusions— ^conceived in a spirit of injustice and 
intolerance, and full to overflowing of that malig- 
nity which delights in adding insult to injury. 
The allusion to Judas is not supported, or at- 
tempted to be supported, by any thing in the 
character of the subject of the denunciation. No- 
thing is adduced or even charged to show any 
justice in the comparison. The allusion to Shy- 
lock is also, for aught that appears or is urged; 
equally baseless; the extent of the whole allega- 
tion being that Rothschild, when he lends money, 
takes security for it! The moral to be drawn 
from it by the reflecting Mississippian is that the 
proverbially treacherous Mexican, the degenerate 
Spaniard and even the "infidel Turk" are not 
smart enough to pick flaws in contracts instead 
of paying the money they call for, while the 
State of Mississippi is! Well — it must be admit- 
ted that, under such a Ruler as the man who 
penned the above cited insult — the learned The- 
ban who has discovered that the betrayer of 
Christ, the creation of Shakspeare and the baron 
Rothschild are all of the same family, Mississippi 
might sink herself below the level of Mexico or 
Turkey without much trouble, or before she well 
knew what she was about. 

The sentence "It is for the people to 



194 

whether he shall have a moitgage on our cotton 
fields and make serfs of our children," is without 
a sign of similitude to the facts of the case. The 
contemptible trickery of the demagogue, whose 
cry is still "party ascendancy and the pocket!' 7 
shines through its every word. It is an official 
encouragement to and excuse for, "the people" 
to play the niggard and disgrace the State — a 
shallow, senseless pretext at best, which even if 
its charges or allusions were just, would not ex- 
cuse the State from paying her obligations to the 
uttermost farthing. The morality of it is this — 
if a flaw can be picked in the character of a 
creditor, a debtor would elevate his own by refu- 
sing to pay what he owes! What a paragraph 
to be wound up by a reference to "the honor, 
justice and dignity oi the people of the State! " 

The Christian feeling which must have beset 
his excellency when he wished to revive the per- 
secution of the Jews prevailing in some barbar- 
ous ages and countries, is especially remarkable 
after the borrowing of all their money by spend- 
thrift tyrants, is quite refreshing. One would 
think he had recently been melted to tears by 
hearing a full blown repudiator exhort to ways 
of godliness, from some text other than "pay 
that thou owest." It is however precisely such 
a christian feeling as every true Mississippian 
should pray God, in his mercy, to avert from 
his State. 

The House resolutions which called forth this 
"review and defence" were introduced by a com- 
mittee of which Mr. J. Shawl Yerger was chair- 
man. The Report accompanying them is a mas- 
terly rebuke to the opening message of the gov- 
ernor in relation to the subject of the bonds; fully 
meeting and overthrowing, upon " constitutional" 
and "legal" grounds, all the constitutional and 
legal quibbhs which it had cost his excellency so 
much pains to trump up. We should quote this 
document, but for our conviction that although. 



195 

embers of that committee, Mr. Yergei 
Lis associates were bound to notice the quirks and 

B picked out by his excellency in such a pet- 
tifogging spirit, once is enough to take them up 
seriously and refute them, and that it is beneath 
a true hearted Mississippian and sincere lover 
of the State's early and glorious fame, as it is im- 
measurably below a sovereign State, to be bandy- 

>vords on such a subject. Condescending to 
•liscuss the point " legally" with repudiators has 
a tendency to elevate Repudiation into a seeming 
respectability to which it has no pretensions. 
Those who advocate the old, high-toned honor of 
Mississippi, whose dearest hope is to see her lost 
character restored, whose motto in that respect, 
is nil desperandum, whose cry is "fight on, tight 
ever for the Right," and who, trusting in the 
light of experience, believe the day of moral re- 
generation will come, feel that it is beneath them 
to discuss quibbles or to profane the name of "the 
constitution" or "the law" in so despicable and 

jw minded a controversy. They know no 
constitution and no law which enables a sove- 
reign State, or individuals, to borrow money, and 
forbids paying it back. To such men, Repudia- 
tion is an infernal plague-spot upon the State — 
a disgusting, hideous apparition, rising before 
them at every turn, disturbing their repose, in- 
terrupting their peace, checking their rising aspi- 
rations for the honor and glory of their State, 

sooing their rising exultation in her natural 

uitages, shadowing her bright fields, breath- 
ing pestilence into her transparent atmosphere, 
detracting from their happiness, and spreading a 
dark cloud over that of their posterity. Even in 
the midst of their exultation over the prowess in 
arms of her brave and glorious sons who have 
forth to the battle-field, whose valor hai 
shed lustre upon the whole Union — (and, be it 
known, such men can exult in honor and glory 
with an enthusiasm that mere myrmidon- 



196 

selfish slaves to party and the pocket cannot even 
conceive of) — even in the midst of such exulta- 
tion as theirs, comes that accursed stain, rising 
before them, blasting the sight, burning into the 
brain, driving away the flush of exultation and 
blanching the cheek, instead, with a twinge- of 
shame ! They are deprived of the dearest and 
most glorious feelings which can influence man- 
kind — their most glowing aspirations of patriot- 
ism are strangled as they arise — their cup of joy 
is polluted and poisoned before they have raised 
it fairly to their lips, by this outrageous curse of 
Repudiation. The hideous apparition visits them 
in all places — they see it rising and spreading its 
withering arms over the very preacher of God's 
holy word at the sacred desk, and an involuntary 
smile of contempt curls their lips as the shout of 
the false prophet who cries "peace, when there is 
no peace," assails their ears. They are tempted 
to tell him, in unmistakable tones, " In the name 
of the true God, cast trifles aside, and exorcise 
the demon at your very elbow — leave 'idle words* 
and grapple with the monstrous sin of a whole 
people, the breath of which pollutes the very air 
you inspire." If, disgusted with the hypocrisy 
and unmeaning mummery of the world, these 
men turn to solitude and shut themselves in their 
own homes, why, even there, comes the interring 
monitor of God, Conscience, and like the mur- 
deress depicted by the bard of Avon, though, 
unlike her, the crime is not their own, their cry 
is still "out, damned spot, out, out," and still in 
vain. It will not, however, be always in vain. 
Partisans who are too utterly selfish to have a 
genuine feeling of patriotism within them, may 
hoot at such considerations as these — may treat 
what we have here written as a mere u fancy- 
sketch" and so pronounce it. They may believe, 
absolutely, that no man in the State cares so much 
for the State as to allow her disgrace to trouble 
his conscience. Be it so It but proves that 



197 

their patriotism is superficial, outward, mere 
seeming — that their sensibility is blunted, their 
susceptibilities dull or rusted ; but it proves 
nothing as to us or those who think with us. 
We are sure we have not over-painted our own 
feelings, and if we believed we stood alone, we 
would have no hesitation in believing the State 
irretrievably dishonored — that the spirit and soul 
of her old honor and chivalry had departed for* 
^ver, despite the prowess of her arms. 

But let the scoffer lay no such flattering unction 
to his soul. The old Mississippi spirit is 
dead — we have the most reliable assurances that 
there are thousands of noble and feeling hearts 
which throb in unison with every word we have 
written. So well are we assured of this that 
we will risk a prediction upon it, and this it is 
8<§* Mississippi will be regenerated. 

As to the inventors and authors of Repudiation, 
let them for awhile exult in the curse they have 
brought upon the State; but let them not forget 
the old adage — * curses always come home to 
roost." 

Chapter 2 of the Acts of 1S41 provides 
funding the State warrants — i. e. authorizes the 
State to take up her unpaid warrants by gi 
new paper for them at 2, 4 and 6 years, at 5 per 
cent, interest. The holders of these warrants 
thus made a loan to the State, but as they were 
office holders, the friends of office holders or, at 
all events, mostly citizens of the State, which is 
to say "the people ," in w r hose veins u the blood 
of Judas and Shylock" did not flow and who had 
mortgage upon the Holy City of Jerusalem 
and the sepulchre of our Savior," it was nevei 
discovered that this loan, or the redemption of 
it, required the action of two legislature 
make it perfectly constitutional and valid. It is 
worthy of remark here that after taking their 
. time to pay the office holders' currency, in- 
creasing the taxes, repudiating the Union B 



198 

bonds out and out, and never paying the Planters 7 
or a cent of the interest thereon, the "Demo- 
cratie Rule" has by its treasurer, officially re- 
ported the treasury utterly empty in the begin- 
ing of this blessed year of our Lord 1847 ! 

It would seem that there is always a failure, 
and of the worst kind, whenever the "Rule" 
try their hand at finance. One reason is that 
the men they put forward do not understand what 
they undertake to do, and another, that, they 
sacrificed, (despite the earlier beseechings of 
Governor M'Nutt not to do so) both "the char- 
acter and credit of the State." When the State, 
therefore, has not, at any time, the actual hard 
dollars to meet a demand, there is no hope for 
her under this "Rule" but failure, protest, de- 
preciation of her paper and, in short, disgrace - 
The treasurer states (1847) that he will have 
plenty of money on the first of January to pay 
up what is due. So much the more shame for 
"the Rule," which has so managed as to let the 
State's paper, be dishonored during so short an 
interim. 



CHAPTER XVII. 

A few paragraphs from the report of a com- 
mittee of the House to whom was referred so 
much of the Governor's message as relates to 
the collection of the public revenue, the defal- 
cation of public officers, the outstanding Auditor's 
warrants, and the domestic debt of the State, 
[Jour. 197] will show "how the money went." 
After speaking of the amount expended on the 
public buildings, the Report says [page 200.] 

"Your committee would further recommend, as an im- 
portant means of retrenchment, that the public printing 
in future be let out to the lowest bidder. That item of 
expenditure has cost the State /row thirty to forty thou- 
sand dollars per annum, which should not, in the opin- 
ion of your committee, cost the State one-third of that 
amount. Formerly, the public printing of the State 
was let to the lowest bidder, and did not cost the State 
©ne fifth of what it now does. 



199 

■ -Your committee would further suggest, that the State 
has already paid for publishing the opinions of the Su- 
preme Court $8,000; and, as the law now exists, will 
prove a continual drain upon the treasury, which, in the 
'.pinion of your committee, should be dispensed with, or 
means devised whereby such publications could be had 
for a much less amount. 

''Your committee would further suggest, that the con- 
tingent fund is at present $4,000 — a sum entirely too 
much, and which may safely be reduced to $2,000 with- 
out any detriment to the public service ; moreover, it is 
worthy of remark, that frequent appropriations have 
been made for printing done by order of the Executive. 
The exorbitant appropriations to private individuals, 
that have gradually insinuated themselves into the leg- 
islature, is a matter worthy of consideration, and calls 
for reform. 

"That portion of the Governor's message recommend- 
ing a change in the mode of appointing assessors and 
'•ollectors of taxes and giving the appointment to the 
Governor, is, in the opinion of your committee, an in- 
novation upon the republican principles of our govern- 
ment that should not be departed from, except for more 
substantial reasons that those assigned by his Excellency. 
His Excellency has, in no instance, as your committee 
believe, exerted the powers already given him in relation 
to the defaulting revenue officers, for palpable violations 
of duty. 

•'The constitution provides that they may be removed 
by indictment and trial by jury. Assessors and collector* 
have been permitted to go on and collect the taxes for one, 
two and three years, without making any return to the 
Auditor's office; and no suit or indictment being institut- 
ed against such defaulting officers. It is the duty of his 
Excellency to see that the laws are faithfully executed ; 
in this particular, however, his Excellency has been 
remiss." 

We have a few words to say on each part of 
this Report which we have italicised. As to the 
public printing, the legislature did pass a law 
[Acts of '41 Chapter 7 J requiring the Secretary 
of State to contract for the public printing on the 
lowest practicable terms and, to that end, to re- 
ceive sealed proposals, &c It must be almost 
needless to add, however, that the construction 
of this statute has always been in favor of candi- 
dates of the same persuasion in politics as "the 
Rule" itself. No whig, nor even any half-way 
t is to say Planters'* Bank) bond-payer of 



200 

the democratic creed has been able to bid low 
enough to get the printing. The secretary there- 
fore might just as well have subjoined to his ad- 
vertisements the following Nota Bene. — "None 
but thorough going repudiators need apply." 
The true blue repudiators bid one cent, depend- 
ing upon the Rule to make it up, which, in due 
time was done ! But of this more anon. 

The contingent fund, it will have been per- 
ceived in a preceding chapter, had been increas- 
ed at the suggestion of the Governor. That fre- 
quent appropriations for printing were made from 
it cannot be controverted, and that utterly useless 
appropriations for that purpose w r ere sometimes 
made, we have already seen — item, the adver- 
tising of Executive proclamations of forfeiture 
of numerous bank charters — empty humbugs, 
iC full of sound and fury, signifying nothing" and 
having no legal or binding effect. 

According to the committee, the Governor 
had been allowing the "leg treasurers" to carry 
things pretty much in their own way, though 
the existing laws, which he was bound to see 
faithfully executed, were sufficient to check them 
— contenting himself with calling upon the leg- 
islature,, from year to year, to make new laws, 
not forgeting to insist on an extension of execu- 
tive power, at the same time. As to the impro- 
priety of giving to the Executive the appoint- 
ment of the assessors and collectors, the legisla- 
ture did not disagree with the committee ; but, 
as though to leave his excellency as little excuse 
as possible for allowing the revenue to slip through 
his fingers, that body provided [Acts ch. 3] for 
imprisoning assessors who might make false re- 
turns and for fining and imprisoning tax collec- 
tors who might speculate in State warrants or 
refuse to pay over money collected. By another 
act [ch. 4] the Governor was required to insti- 
tute suit against the auditor, on his bond, for ne- 
glect of duty, and the auditor, in turn, to bring 



201 

Suits against defaulting assessors and collectors ; 
and if the latter neglected to bring such suits, he 
was to be fined $500 himself. 

By way of aiding the treasury, the tax list 
was extended to various articles, [Acts ch. 1 | 
the office of commissioner of public buildings 
was abolished, [ch. 14] and brokers were com- 
pelled to take out licences, and pay $500 for them. 
I Ch. 17.] 

As to reducing the salaries of the judges, sug- 
gested by the Governor, a committee of the 
He use reported [House Jour. 1 54] that the sala- 
ries of the judges of the High Court and that of 
the Chancellor were sufficiently low, and oppos- 
ed the project of cutting down salaries indiscrim- 
inately, upon principle. The fees of the clerks 
of both those tribunals, however, were reduced 
j ch. 6] and the half commissions of the Sheriffs 
j in cases where the money was not made) were 
abolished. [Ch. 26.] 

As to the Remedies for the Times in 1841, the 
rights of creditors were interfered with in sever- 
al particulars. Judgments had previously con- 
stituted a lien upon the property of judgment 
debtors in all or any of the counties in which 
such property was situated. This lien was, in 
fact, a part of the judgment — a right of the judg- 
ment creditor, which by an act of 1S41 [ch. 9] 
was taken away, except as to property in coun- 
ties where the judgment was rendered, unless, 
before the first of July of that year (which is to 
say, within some rive months from the passage of 
the law and before the pamphlet acts would, in 
all probability, be distributed) the creditor should 
have an abstract of his judgment filed in the 
county in which the property bound might lie. 
In this manner, many foreign and a number of 
resident creditors, who knew nothing of the law, 
and could not ascertain in what counties their 
debtors had property, in times when there was 
so much temptation to concealment, lost their 



202 

liens, and, in consequence, their money. Even 
in relation to future judgments, such a law should 
not, in fairness, take effect under a year, or more, 
from the date of its passage, nor is it probable 
that any law of the kind operating upon contracts 
in existence at the time of its passage, whether 
in judgment or not, could be passed without im- 
pairing the obligation of such contracts. The 
time at which this act w r as passed and the conse- 
quences which were sure to follow its passage at 
such a time, (and did follow it) stamp it as one 
of that class of laws w r hich especially distinguishes 
the Democratic Rule and injured the credit of 
the State — laws for the benefit of debtors exclu- 
sively. 

Chapter 15, of the Acts of 1841, exempts 
from sale, under execution, 160 acres of land, 
with the dwelling house, &c, of a debtor living 
in the country, and town residences where the 
lot does not exceed $1500 in value, no matter if 
the improvements be worth thousands. This act 
relates, professedly, to future contracts only, and, 
as such, if intended as the settled policy of a 
State, might be less objectionable ; but unfortu- 
nately, previous immoral legislation and the then 
new doctrine of "the Rule" that debts might be 
repudiated, by way of getting rid of paying them, 
had had such an effect upon the people as to ren- 
der this act also of an immoral tendency at the 
time. If, even in small numbers, improvements 
have been made upon these exempted tracts of 
land and lots, with the means of those who w r ere 
largely indebted and whose money thus expended 
should have gone to the discharge of their exist- 
ing debts, the law has been a curse. Any law 
which encourages those who owe money to ag- 
grandize themselves and leave their creditors un- 
paid is improper, immoral and wholly unjustifia- 
ble. No such law, to take effect within a short 
time after its enactment, could probably be passed 
with safety to the morals of a community. Cer- 



ta'mly then, such a law could not be enacted with 
safety to the public morals in such times as pre- 
vailed in Mississippi in 1841. 

Chapter 16 is styled "An act to prevent unne- 
cessary charges against debtors." It abolishes the 
advertisement of execution sales in the public 
papers, and substitutes the very uncertain method 
of giving notice by posting up written adver- 
tisements, unless upon the request of the debtor, 
who might have it advertised if he pleased. 
This has, in some instances, caused immense 
sacrifices of property, operating against both cre- 
ditor and debtor ; but, in other cases, has enabled 
scheming debtors to procure their property to be 
bought in for them by some friend for a mere 
song. Its effect may be said to have been im- 
moral in Mississippi. Tax sales were to be ad- 
vertised in the same manner, giving foreign hold- 
ers of lands no notice whatever; but this act was 
inoperative. Great carelessness, we mean greater 
than usual, prevailed in the legislation of 1841. 
in the executive message of 1842 [Sen. Jour. 13] 
it is stated that "the published acts of 1841 do 
not contain the legislative will," and that "about 
a dozen laws were passed during the session, 
which were in effect repealed by the approval of 
the revenue bill at the close of the session. " 
Among these was the act forbidding tax collectors 
to advertise their sales in the newspapers. The 
governor (McNutt) in this message also enume- 
rates among the acts thus virtually repealed, 
"numerous special acts for the relief of tax col- 
lectors, ,and the punishment of defaulters ;" so 
that it would seem the leg treasury system was 
left to flourish in full blast. 

Chapter 24 repeals "An act to guard against 
the insolvency of the banks and moneyed corpo- 
rations in this State, and to secure the rights of 
creditors" passed in 1837. Of this we have 
only to remark that it would seem to be in conso- 
nance with the general movement of "the Rule," 



204 

which does not appear, in its whole course, to 
have exerted any ingenuity to "guard against the 
insolvency of the banks" or to "secure the rights 
of creditors," but, on the contrary, to haw 
pushed on the former to insolvency and to have 
omitted no opportunity to legislate the latter out 
of all the rights they could. 

If all these bad effects were not intended by 
"the Rule" who passed or suffered the passage 
of these acts, that dynasty is highly censurable, 
at the very least, for a want of knowledge how- 
to legislate for the true interests and welfare of 
the people. In vain may the philosopher lax- 
down maxims or the minister of God exert him- 
self to save souls — in vain may churches be built 
and filled to overflowing, while these legislative 
temptations to sin, whether so intended to be or 
not, are continuously set before the people, infus- 
ing an immoral and irreligious poison into the 
every day transactions and business of man with 
man. The imperative duty of every one who 
pretends to legislate for a people is to set his face 
against every violation of contracts — to hold all 
pecuniary obligations sacred — and never to coun- 
tenance any act which, even remotely, derogates 
from the most immaculate inviolability of such 
obligations. No departure from this principle 
can be safe. Legislate up to it, in good faith and 
with the utmost human sagacity, and men will 
still be found sufficiently wicked and ingenious 
to evade your laws ; but relax that principle, and 
you transform good into bad men, by hundreds 

The Legislature of 1841, like the preceding, 
attempted some enlightening of the national coun- 
sels by "Resolutions." Among these, are those 
in relation to the tariff [Acts ch. 37.] After 
some usual anti-tariff declarations, the whole ta- 
riff policy is attempted to be " knocked into a 
cocked hat" by the following off hand mode of 
disposing of it : 

11 Be it further resolved, That no branch of domestic 
industry, and no description of domestic investment, 



ready profitable, needs special protection, and 
which is unprofitable, deserves it." 

This, we think, might have settled the ques- 
tion for the Solons at Washington, but we have 
no data on which to state that they were alto- 
gether astounded by this voice from Mississippi. 

Some railroad companies, such as the, "Com- 
merce, Hernando and Eastport" [ch. 88] the 
"Canton and Jackson," [ch. 110,] &c, were in- 
corporated, which, as was very common with the 
creations of the Rule, " never came to any thing." 

Though we here bid farewell to the political 
events of 1841, so far as the published Acts 
and Journals of that year reveal them, we can- 
not pass over the Executive doings of that year 
in relation to the bonds, in the very teeth of the 
fully expressed will of the Legislature, without 
further comment. The year 1841 was the last 
of the administration of Mr. McNutt, and its 
history is entitled to notice distinct from the 
acts of the adminstration of Mr. Tucker. 

In the message of Mr. McNutt at the opening 
of the session of 1842 — he remaining in office 
until the votes were duly counted and his suc- 
cessor proclaimed governor — we find some reca- 
pitulation of the events of 1841, and, among the 
documents accompanying that message, his cor- 
respondence with the bond holders, who very 
naturally became anxious as to the fate of their 
claims. The letters of these wronged individu- 
als are all respectful, and generally express the 
opinion that the State will still maintain her char- 
acter. The dates of these epistles run from May 
to August 1841, and the copies of them occupy 
the Senate Journal for 1842, from page 57 to 66. 

One of these is from Mr. James B. Murray, 
under date of the 16th of August. This letter 
should be read and considered attentively by 
every Mississippian and indeed every American. 
We shall give it, premising that the letter of Mr. 
>utt to Messrs. Hope & Co., referred to in it, 



206 

is one under date of July 14, 1840, in reply loa 
letter of that house to him, dated the 22d May ? 
stating that the payment of the interest due on 
the Union Bank bonds has been refused, and that 
^from their confidence in the faith of that govern- 
ment (Mississippi) they feel convinced that the 
simple mentioning the fact of the non-payment, 
will be a sufficient stimulus for the government 
of the State of Mississippi, to take immediate 
measures for the payment of the interest now due, 
and which will further successively become due 
on those bonds, and to prevent irregularities or 
demur so prejudicial to the interest of American 
credit abroad, and that of the State of Mississippi 
in particular." To this letter his excellency, 
A. G. McNutt, governor of the State of Mis- 
sissippi, &c, &c, replies by giving a chapter 
oi that celebrated special pleading of flaws t 
quirks and quibbles which we have before shown 
up, and do not intend further to defile our paper 
by again arraying. The letter of Mr. Murray- 
is as follows : 

"Sir: — I have received from the Executive Depart- 
ment of the State of Mississippi, a copy of a letter ad - 
dressed by your Excellency to the Messrs. Hope, of 
Amsterdam, denying the obligation of the State to pro- 
vide for the bonds issued to the Union Bank of Missis- 
sippi. 

'The interest which as a Native American, I fee] in 
preserving inviolate the faith of each and every State, 
and the frequent occasions which a residence of more 
than two years past in Europe has afforded me of learn- 
ing the views of her capitalists, induces me to make a 
few remarks in reference to the positions assumed Dy- 
vour Excellency in the letter to which I have alluded. 
"In Europe, our several States are regarded as one 
nation, subject to a common code of moral as well as 
legal obligation, and the departure of any one from this 
well defined line would be considered as a breach of 
the entire national faith. Hence the desire which would 
be felt throughout the Union, that before any arguments 
are adduced to justify an act so solemn as the repudia- 
tion of a State debt, 'it should be well ascertained to be 
capable of undergoing the severest scrutiny, as well 
abroad as at home; for reputation either national or in- 
dividual, is of little value if confined to the judgment 
of those who entertain it merely as a boast, while they 
impair Us best understood attributes." 



207 

(In the next five paragraphs of his letter, Mr- 
Murray, probably not knowing his man, nor the 
determination never to be convinced against the 
cry of the pocket, which is at the bottom of re- 
pudiation, undertakes to argue the Executive 
quirks; and, notwithstanding he has the best of 
that argument, we must decline copying that por- 
tion of the letter, lest we should be accused of 
descending to treat the squirming out of pecunia- 
ry obligations, by a sovereign State, with any 
such degree of respect. Should we set ourself 
about it, we have no doubt we could pick flaws 
of some kind in the transactions relating to nine 
tenths of the public loans made ; but, however 
large the amount involved or however great the 
reward to us, we should consider it a very small 
business. The letter before us, after the digres- 
sion noted, proceeds as follows :) 

"My memory, however, leads me to recollect and to 
comment on an argument urged by your Excellency, 
that these deductions of the premium of exchange and 
interest on the deferred instalments, have essentially in- 
terfered with the profits of the Bank, and thereby di- 
minish the ability of the institution to lay aside those 
profits out of which the payments were to be made. I 
am much mistaken if the reports of the Bank will not 
show that the use of the proceeds cf this five million 
ioan enabled the Bank to keep up a discount line of 
some nine or ten millions of dollars, which it wa?. sup- 
posed at the time contributed greatly to the commercial 
facilities of the State, as well as to the profits of the insti- 
tutioD: and if these facilities have been abused, and the 
ioans have resulted disastrously, the cupidity for large 
business on the one hand, and great dividends on the 
other, ought not to constitute a ground for disavowing 
the obligation to repay the bond holder, who has been 
privy to none of these negotiations, but reposing on the 
integrity and ability of the State, has invested his money 
at a low rate of interest, many having paid par and up- 
wards for the bonds. 

'I cannot presume that your Excellency would seek 
to throw between the State and her bond holders the 
shield of her irresponsibility as a sovereign. However, 
sach a plea might serve as the means of getting rid or 
one just debt, it would effectually prevent her ability 
ever to create another, and react with tenfold prejudice 
to her honor and prosperity. Of all the catalogue of 
junior States, Mississippi can best afford (if such an ex- 



208 

pression- is allowable) to remain true to her engage 
ments. Other States might shrink under the apprehen- 
sion of inability to meet a debt thus suddenly and unex- 
pectedly imposed uponthem— but Mississippi, favored by 
nature with a soil of surpassing fertility and producing 
a staple in constant demand, can look all her contracts 
in the face, confident that a brief period of economy and 
industry, will repair all the injuries which injudicious 
legislation or improvident financiering, may have in- 
flicted upon her. 

"It would be, indeed a matter of lasting regret, that 
such a State should place her reputation for future ages, 
on a point so equivocal as whether the engagement t<> 
pay a debt on one side of the Atlantic or the other, con- 
stitutes an apology for not paying it at all. 

"That the stipulation to make it payable any w 
out of this country is binding on the State, I do no: mean 
to affirm, but then I would numbly suggest, it would be 
sufficient to deny any liability on the part of Mississippi, 
to provide funds in Europe, and in the correctness oi 
such a position, I believe the bond holders abroad, would, 
on a fair explanation, acquiesce, reserving their right to 
look to the parties negotiating the bonds for ihe differ- 
ence of exchange. 

"While the commercial world abroad is rapid-} 
carding that relict ot barbarism, the usury law, from 
their statute books, many of our own legislatures are 
disposed to make it more strong, and yet in the face of 
this law, not a day elapses without its being evaded; but 
any man who strives to avail himself of such defence 
to get rid of a debt, finds his subsequent credit destroyed, 
although acting under the direct protection of the law- 
of the State. Admitting however, your Excellency lo 
be right in the rigid construction of the law to which 
you have referred, were your case that of an indi- 
vidual, I doubt whether a court uf equity would grant 
relief without a tender of the money advanced, and the 
world at large would treasure in its memory a fact suf- 
ficient to exclude forever the name of the people as well 
as the Slate itself, from confidence and credit. 

"1 know that there are many citizens of States which 
have remained faithful to their engagements, who think- 
that the repudiation of debts by other States, would nar- 
row the circle of competition and increase their own 
facilities. Such is not my opinion. I do not believe 
ihat the repudiation of any one can be impaired without 
affecting, in a greater or less degree, that of the whole. 

"Heretofore confidence has been implicit among for- 
eigners in our strict adherence to public faith. Tbey 
have witnessed the entire payment of a debt contracted at 
exorbitant rates in the infancy of our national existence, 
and there are few who believe that any portion of that 
nation will swerve from the bright example set by our 



209 

oessors of the revolution. I hope that every sister 
of our republican connexion, will feel that the honor of 
the whole family is involved in her continuing not only 
'pure, but unsuspected." 3 

Another letter is from some sixteen or seven- 
teen firms and individuals in London, holders of 
the Planters' Bank Bonds, and professes confi- 
dence in the honor and justice of the State. They 
appear to think (poor fellows) that the non-pay- 
ment of the interest cannot be owing to the de- 
liberate negligence of the Democratic Rule, but 
that some agent, charged with the payment of the 
money, must have defaulted. The continuance 
in power of the Rule up to this day without an 
effort having been made to make a payment or 
retrieve the character of the State, must have en- 
abled them to "cut their eye teeth 5 ' and see that 
dynasty as it is. 

Another letter is from an individual in England 
who has only $2000 of the bonds which he had 
purchased at 12^ per ct. premium, in full reliance 
upon the safety of his investment, and who seems 
to be a poor man, whose wants spur him on 
to talk rather more plainly than the other suf- 
ferers. The concluding paragraph of his letter 
is subjoined, and if there is a Mississippian whose 
pride is not touched by the reflection that just 
cause has been given for addressing such a para- 
graph to the government of his State, we do not 
think any State would lose much by his with- 
drawal from her soil : 

'I will thank you, honorable sir, to inform rae 
I am to do with my bonds, (amount $2000.) By trans- 
mitting them to New York or Mississippi, can they be 
soldi Or, will the Treasurer of Mississippi purchase 
them at the market price of 375, as I am willing to lose 
the difference between 112J and the above, v^hich is 37* 
dollars per centi" 

This is followed by the notice of protest of a 
coupon for $50 ! The obligation of a sovereign 
State for fifty dollars protested ! Admirable 
statesmanship of the Rule! Most admirable: 
financiers! When the U. States Bank advanced 



210 

money to save your credit before, you would not 
pay it back, and now there was nobody to stand 
between the State and a protest for $50 ! 

Besides these, there is a letter from the cashier 
of the United States Bank |_p. 64J showing that 
a flaw picked by his excellency in relation to 
some matter of exchange is a humbug, and that 
the extra charge is for advancing, for the honor of 
the State, what she did not herself provide. 
There is also a letter from the president of that 
corporation [p. 47] in which his excellency's ob- 
jection to the payment of interest in London, in- 
stead of New York, is met by the very plain ex- 
planation that the change does not increase the 
amount Mississippi would have had to pay when 
the interest became due, and that when, to show 
an amount due in London, in pounds, a certain 
rate of exchange was charged, the same rate 
was charged back again to show the amount in 
New York in dollars, where Mississippi might 
pay if she would — a matter which Gov. M'Nutt 
[message of '42, Sen. Jour. p. 20] professes to 
regard as an explanation "far from satisfactory." 
With all due deference, we should suppose any 
one could understand this who icished to do so, 
The words of the letter so hard to understand are 
these, "the rate of exchange at which dollars are 
converted into pounds is the same as that at 
which pounds are converted into dollars in the 
account furnished by this bank." On showing 
this difficulty to a very plain friend, he remarked 
that he " reckoned the Governor did'nt want to 
pay the money, no how," and so it seems to us. 

Now all this correspondence is disgraceful to 
the State — utterly so — but it does not place the 
repudiating faction in so despicable and con- 
temptible a light as the three words which 
form the caption of it in the Journals of both 
the Senate and House, for the. year 1842, page 
57. After the message, comes the usual and 
proper caption, " Documents accompanying the 



211 

governor's message. " This, of course, included 
the letters from the bond holders, of which we 
have been writing, but the uncalled for and su- 
peradditional caption of "Letters from Fundmon- 
gers" which precedes the letters of the bond 
holders, must be regarded as a low minded piece 
of abuse which, however it might suit the head 
of an article in a repudiating newspaper, no one 
will contend could, with any decency, be inserted 
in the Journals of the Legislature. It is a term 
of contempt and abuse, so intended to be, and so 
used. It was not enough that the bond holders 
were doomed to lose their money — insult must be 
added to the injury ! The question is tcho placed 
it there ? Did the clerks of the legislature take 
the responsibility, or was it the public printer; 
or did his excellency, u the Executive," the "com- 
mander of the army and navy of Mississippi," 
so indorse the package when he sent it in ? The 
higher the officer who did it, the more pitiful 
was the act. The fact that the letter of governor 
McNutt to Messrs. Hope & Co., comes under 
the same caption, does not relieve the act of its 
injustice, though he, acting for Mississippi, is the 
most successful speculator in funds on record. 

From this a pica}^une" abuse, we will turn, by 
way ol variety, to a touch of grandiloquent dem- 
agogism in the message of Mr. McNutt, which 
is worth perhaps "a bit." It refers to his letter 
to Messrs. Hope & Co. We italicise a few 
words in order that none of its force may be 
lost. 

{ 'The letter referred to will place you in full posses- 
sion of the grounds on which I have deemed it my duty 
to advise the bond holders that this Slate never will pay the 
fioc millions oj dollar's in State bonds delivered to the 
Mississippi Union Bank, or any part of the interest due 
or to become due thereon. An appeal has been made 
to the Sovereign people of the State on this question, and 
their verdict, from which no appeal can be taken, has 
triumphantly sustained the principles for which /have 
long contended. No power can compel them to pay a 
demand which they know to be unju»t. This result has 
.usly sustained the sacred truth that the toiling mil- 



212 

lion never should be burthened with taxes to support the 
idle few. Our constituents have wisely resolved that the 
highest obligations of honor , faith and, justice demand of 
us a strict adherence to the constitution t and that the 
laws of the land cannot be set at defiance. Whenever 
a different principle shall ptevail,and the doctrine be 
firmly established that any agent of the people or corpo- 
ration can, in violation of law, burthen unborn genera- 
tions with onerous debts — freedom, will no. longer exist, 
and our star w ill be blotted from the conslelltaion of repub- 
lican States ! ;! 

Now if the reader will repeat the words we 
have emphasized in a sonorous tone, mumbling 
over the rest as he goes along, so that they are 
utterly unintelligible, he will still be repeating 
what would go down with that part of the "toil- 
ing million' 1 to whom his excellency particular- 
ly addressed himself, as one of the most glorious 
oratorical efforts imaginable; but if, on the other 
hand, he will read it all, deliberately and coolly, 
thinking all the time that its object is to prevent 
the payment of debts, he will arrive at a true 
criticism upon it, and set it down for one of the 
most contemptible pieces of hypocritical bombast 
and pretended patriotism ever written. 

The last messages of Governor McNutt (in 
the beginning of 1842, a few days before he went 
out of office) show very conclusively that no im- 
provement had taken place in the administration 
of the government during his four years of ser- 
vice, or rather of rule; for no man in a republic 
ever ruled more completely than he. The fol- 
lowing extracts from his message [Sen. Jour, of 
1842, p. 15] reveals a sad state of public affairs, 
truly: 

"The duties of many of our officers are, for long pe- 
riods of lime, performed by deputies and clerks. If they 
are competent to discharge such duties, they deserve the 
salaries drawn by their principals — if undeserving, 
they are unfit to be entrusted with the management of 
such important offices. 55 

As to the Auditor, Treasurer and Secretary of 
State, he says : 

"They frequently absent themselves for long periods 
uf lime without even notifying the Executive of their 



213 

intentions. During their absence, the business of their 
offiees is left in the charge of clerks, who neither give 
bonds nor take the oath of office. Under such circum- 
-'.ances, the public business is often neglected, and the 
is of the State endangered." 

Again: it is stated that suit had been pending 
on the bond of a defaulting Auditor (who owed 
the State upwards of $50,000) three years — that 
assistant counsel had been employed by the State, 
but no judgment obtained, and, in the mean time, 
the securities of the defaulter had become insol- 
vent, and the whole claim good for nothing. It 
is further stated that thousands of dollars are an- 
nually lost to the State by delays and failures in 
the prosecution of suits by the district attorneys 
against defaulters, [p. 16,1 In another place 

p. 14.] we find that assessors and collectors re- 
sign and no tax rolls are returned, &c, &c, &c. — 
in short, the same old story as in the beginning 
and entire progress of his two terms of office. 

The Treasury still presents an account of 
••empty boxes," though the Governor thinks 

p. 25.] the taxes will be ample to redeem the 
Warrants issued after the 1st January '41, (the 
State having passed an act in '41, forbidding the 
reception of old warrants for taxes, and upwards 

f 580,000 in them having been consequently 
funded) and to support the government during 
1842. "This result," says his excellency "is 
truly gratifying! It will enable the State to 
discharge her just obligations' 1 (the office holders' 
currency) "in par funds!" 

We presume the "gratification" was not so ex- 
ve as to be too much for any one, nor do we 
find any account of a single member of "the Rule" 
having been injured by it. 

As an evidence of the increasing fairness and 
morality of "the people," who basked in the 
effulgent examples of the State's own honesty, 
during his administration, the Governor finds 
himself compelled to notice the frauds in pack- 
cotton, which had become so numerous as to 



214 

induce foreign chambers of commerce to com- 
plain, formally, to the American consuls, and the 
latter, in turn, to the Governor of Mississippi — 
a circumstance the like of which was never heard 
of in the State of Mississippi until after the advent 
of repudiation. Among the "accompanying docu- 
ments," is a letter which states that bad cotton, 
seed cotton, cotton seed, and even stones, were 
found in the centre of numerous bales which were 
composed of a good quality of cotton to the 
depth usually pierced by the common instru- 
ment for sampling the bales. As many of these 
were undoubtedly put up for the purpose of cheat- 
ing the "rascally, swindling, soulless corpora- 
tions," which advanced on the staple, and were 
sold to foreign Jew brokers, in whose veins flow- 
ed "the blood of Judas and Shylock" and who 
"united the qualities of both their countrymen" 
it is rather surprising that his excellency, ^fter 
getting up so many quirks against paying such 
characters the bonds they held, should not have 
set down cheating them in cotton as a virtue, and 
highly illustrative of the "honor, justice and dig- 
nity of the people of this State," inherited from 
their "revolutionary sires," of which he was wont 
to prate so much when advocating repudiation. 
The last official kick of Mr. McNutt at the 
devoted bond holders was the recommendation 
in his message of 1842 [Sen. Jour. p. 22.] to 
establish a new court, to be styled the Revenue 
Court , the judge to be appointed by the executive, 
or by the legislature on joint ballot. "There is 
nothing in the constitution," says this ultra de- 
mocrat, "requiring such an officer to be elected 
by the people, and I feel quite confident that 
they do not desire the election of persons to fill 
offices created by law!" To this court, thus 
moulded, his excellency proposed to give juris- 
diction of suits against defaulters (whose sins 
could be easily forgiven, doubtless, by a judge 
of "the right stripe") and of causes against the 



215 

State. In relation to the -jurisdiction given to 
the Superior Court of Chancery in the latter 
class of cases, his excellency says: [p. 17.] 

"It never was intended by the framers of the consti- 
tution that every public creditor should be permitted to 
harrass the State at pleasure, by vexatious suits." 

In another place, he says, rather sneeringlv : 

u The People have not entrusted to any Court the pow- 
er of compelling their representatives to raise money, or 
appropriate it to any purpose whatever. ISeither the 
judgment of a court nor the decree of the Chancellor 
can be obligatory on the legislature," &c. "The repre- 
sentatives of the people would be recreant to their trust 
if they permit the judgment of the court to influence 
them in raising taxes," &c. 

He further takes some pains to show that the 
United States Court could have no jurisdiction in 
certain cases against the State, even if the State 
gave her consent, because it had been decided that 
consent of parties could not give jurisdiction to 
courts, &c. After all these flourishes of dema- 
gogism, who can doubt the extreme candor of 
the following? 

"These suggestions have been called forth by a know- 
ledge of the fact that several suits for large amounts 
are now pending in the Superior Court of Chancery 
against the State, growing out of contracts in relation 
to public buildings; and that other suits, for still larger 
suras, will probably be soon instituted by the holders of 
certain bonds heretofore issued to the Planters' Bank 
and the Mississippi Union Bank!" 

Good! these suits were expected, and a parti- 
cular court was to be trumped up to be ready 
for them! We have heard before of "one cur- 
rency for the government and another for the 
people," but we doubt whether this project of 
making the legal tribunals of the two separate 
and distinct, is not far ahead of the one just named . 
A "star chamber" for the express use of the 
"Democratic Rule"in Mississippi is really a very 
stupendous affair to reflect upon. 

With the mention of this incident, we might 
wind up our account of the McNutt era, and, 
doubtless, all would admit that we had thus been 
eaalled to wind it up to a most remarkable pitch; 



but there is still a matter or two claiming our at- 
tention. It will be recollected by our readers 
that we noticed a letter from Governor McNutt 
to the president of the Planters' Bank, inform- 
ing him that as the bond holders had not consent- 
ed to the transfer of the State stock in that bank 
to the Mississippi Rail Road company, the trans- 
fer was nugatory, and asking whether the Plant- 
ers' Bank was ready to pay the interest due and 
an instalment soon coming due. In the message 
before us [p. 19.] is to be found the following — 
"a careful examination of the charter of the 
Planters' Bank will demonstrate that that insti- 
tution is not bound (and never has been) for 
either the principal or interest of the bonds!" — 
Again: all will remember the use made of the 
"unconstitutionality" of the supplemental char- 
ter of the Union Bank, by which the State took 
stock for her- bonds instead of merely loaning 
her faith and credit. In the document before us, 
[p. 33.] we find the following hint of there being 
no transfer of stock to the State — "The State is 
not to be found among the list of stockholders 
reported by the bank. No certificate of stock 
has ever been tendered by the directors of that i?i- 
stitution to the Executive." 

What then? There was no purchase of stock, 
we suppose? If so, what follows? Is it not 
that the "unconstitutional" supplemental bill had 
in fact been disregarded, the loan made under the 
original charter, the sale of the bonds consequent- 
ly free from objection, and the stock mortgages of 
individuals bound as security for the payment of 
the State bonds? 

Verilv these executive twistings and turnings 
to get rid of the State debt show at least one 
thing — viz: that, in political, as w r ell as in social 
life, "the way of the transgressor is hard ." 

The last words of the last annual message of 
Mr. McNutt consist in a characteristic and part- 
ing fling at the banks. He says the State, by 



217 

Us connexion with banks, has lost more than 
three hundred thousand dollars, to which we beg 
leave to add that the State, by its connexion with 
A. G McNutt, has lost more than a million 
times as much. 

"Who steals my purse, steals trash : 

J T\vas mine, 'lis his, and has been slave to thousands: 

Biu he that filches from me my good name, 

Robs me of that which, not enriches him. 

Bill makes me poor indeed" 



CHAPTER XVIII. 

With the year 1842 commenced the disastrous 
administration of Tilghman M. Tucker as gov- 
ernor of the State of Mississippi — disastrous, not 
only because it was a mere continuation of the 
power of the same "Rule'' which had wielded 
her destinies for the preceding four years, but be- 
cause of the practical effects of the previous im- 
moral course of legislation it made manifest, not 
only among the people, but the officers of the 
government. We believe that this administra- 
tion is considered disastrous by a large portion 
of the "Rule" itself, not on account of the trifles 
we have alluded to, but as being productive of 
feuds, schisms, and mutual newspaper castiga- 
tions among its most prominent and elevated 
members. 

The people of the State must recollect the 
newspaper warfare between their respective ex- 
cellencies, Messrs. McNutt and Tucker. Few 
can have forgotten the "ponderous'' blows which, 
(through "the State paper," if we recollect) these 
distinguished statesmen bestowed upon each 
other. All must have been impressed with an 
enduring sense of the elevation in character and 
dignity the State received from this clashing of 
intellect, ringing through the press like "sound- 
ing brass and the tinkling cymbals," between 
these high dignitaries of "the Rule." None 
with "ears polite" can easily forget the suavity 

T 



218 

of the ebullitions of Mr. McNutt, and none with 
ears poetic could allow to pass them by as the 
idle wind, the classical quotations with which 
the lucubrations of Mr. Tucker, despite the in- 
consistency of the thing, were, nevertheless, en- 
riched, All these things must, we say, have 
made an ineffacable impression upon the public 
mind, and we are therefore relieved from review- 
ing them — for which task, by the way, we have 
neither space nor inclination. 

Passing by all this then, we shall content our- 
selves with paying due attention to that to which 
Mr. Tucker, as governor, saw proper to allude 
in the more solemn and important form of mes- 
sages to the legislature; and the first matter of 
this character to which we shall invite the at- 
tention of the reader, is a sort of historical sum- 
mary of the financial condition of the govern- 
ment under his immediate predecessor, which 
constitutes a very fair exposition of the effect of 
the policy of "the Rule" upon the finances and 
the "character and credit" of the State. For 
this purpose, we pass over, for the present, the 
revelations of the Acts and Journals of 1842, 
and direct the notice of the reader to the Senate 
Journal of the (called) session of 1843 [p. 25] 
where he will find the following views of Mr. 
Tucker duly recorded: 

"On the first day of January, 1838, as appears by the 
reports of the State Treasurer up to that date, there was 
a surplus or balance of cash in the Treasury amounting 
to $279,613 31$, not including, as I understand, either 
the effects of the sinking fund, the seminary land fund, 
or the Jackson city lot notes. Besides this balance, and 
the sinking fund in the Planters' Bank, the seminarv 
land notes, and the Jackson city lot notes, the Slate held 
stock in the Planters' Bank to at least $'2,000,000, which 
stock had, prior to that time, yielded to the State a divi- 
dend of ten per cent or $200,000 per annnm. When I 
came into office, the scene was lamentably changed, not- 
withstanding the population of the State had been bur- 
thened with the payment of a heavy tax for each year 
prior to that period. What was the condition of the 
State Treasury when I came into ofnce'? On the 10th 
of Januarv, 1842, the report of the State Treasure 



219 

made to the legislature, shows a balance in the Trcasu 
ry, on the 30th of November, of $302,955 95£, consis 
ung of the Attorney General's receipts for claims on the 
Brandon and otherbroken banks, for the sum of $233,- 
10*2; the notes of the insolvent Mississippi Rail Road 
Company, $63,030; the notes of the Mississippi Union 
Bank, $1800; the notes of the Hernando Rail Road 
Company, $20; Jackson corporation tickets, $3 62£; and 
specie the sum of 34 cents! These sums are not in my 
estimation, intrinsically worth five per cent, on their 
amount. 

: I found, at the same time, an immense liability pres- 
sing on the Treasury in the shape of outstanding and 
landed Auditor's warrants, ranging in amount from 
one-half to three-fourths of a million of dollars, and 
that instead of the State being the owner of $2,000,000, 
o1 stock in the Planters' Bank, yielding a dividend an- 
nually of two hundred thousand dollars, that this stock 
had been transferred to the Mississippi Rail Road Com- 
pany then insolvent. I found, also, the first instalment 
o( the bonds issued on account of the Planters' Bank, 
$125,000 due and unpaid, as well as the interest for sev- 
eral years on said bonds. The interest, when added to 
the first instalment, amounted to but little short of five 
hundred thousand dollars; making a difference to the 
State, in this transaction, including the $2,000,000, of 
State stock transferred and thereby lost of $2,500,009.— 
Besides these enormous liabilities, I found a claim set 
up against the State of $5,000,000, in the shape of bonds, 
created under and by virtue of the act supplementary to 
the charter of the Mississippi Union Bank, together 
with the interest which had accumulated thereon, a sum 
not short of $250,000. This sketch, which will be found 
by practical tests to be more real than fanciful, shows 
t difference in the financial condition of the State 
in the period of four years preceding my administration. 
On the first day of January, 1838, there was in the 
Treasury the sum of $279,613 3H in cash. On the 10ih 
Jay of January 1842, when I came into office, the real 
pretended claims against the State exceeded the sum 
-.000,000. This presents a scene of reckless extra- 
vagance and prodigality unequalled in the administra- 
tion of any free government which has ever existed. — 
The State has to exhibit as the proceeds or avails of 
these enormous liabilities: — 1st. The sinking fund in 
the Planters' Bank, supposed to amount to between 
8500,000 and 81,000,000, but uncertain as to the nomina ! 
amount, and still more so as to the real and available 
value thereof. 2d. $2,000,000 in stock in the Mississippi 
Rail Road Company. This company has suspended, 
both in the payment of its liabilities and in the perfor- 
mance of the public works contemplated by its charter. 
The stock is of but little if anv value. The Rail I 



220 

being completed only for a short distance, yields but 
small profit, if any, beyond the current expenses of the 
company." 

The people of the State should feel much ob- 
liged to Mr. Tucker for this exposition of the 
remarkable "progress" of affairs under the "Dem- 
ocratic Rule," during the two administrations of 
his predecessor, and we hope the reader will not 
fail to consider it well and then ask himself seri- 
ously, of what value such rulers as the State has 
had have been to her or the people, and whether, 
when the crisis first came, it would not have been 
infinitely better for the State to have gone forward 
honestly, stated her case plainly and truly, ac- 
knowledged her obligations, but obtained an ex- 
tension of time upon the instalment on the Plan- 
ters' Bank bonds which fell due in the midst of 
the pecuniary troubles of the country, and then, 
by a true system of retrenchment and the election 
of honest tax collectors, to have paid the inter- 
est on all her bonds as they fell due with the 
money which has been squandered, as we have 
seen, in every sort of mismanagement, wasted on 
newspaper editors, (for publishing rabid procla- 
mations and the like,) stuck in the pockets of 
tax collectors and, finally, embezzled, by the 
hundred thousand, by the State Treasurer of the 
Tucker administration, after liberally paying up 
the officers of the government in that "constitu- 
tional currency" which is so well approved by 
their party, but which, unfortunately, despite all 
their efforts has never yet "filled the vacuum" in 
circulation in Mississippi, in any legitimate man- 
ner. The State, in this case, would have been 
just as well off pecuniarily, and would have retain- 
ed her "character and credit," besides her good 
name. 

That this could have been done, there can 
be no question, and it would have been done, 
had it not been for that demon of party, which, 
with its accursed caucuses and conventions, its in- 
tolerance and inordinate grasping at power, infuses 



221 

national politics, to the exclusion of the true in- 
terests of the State, into the affairs of the latter, 
controlling even county and precinct elections 
down to the office of constable, and selects men 
for every office in the State, from the highe 
the lowest, not for their ability, sagacity, experi- 
ence or patriotism, but for their adherence to this 
or that line of national politics, this or that na- 
tional administration, or even this or that man if 
a president or even the close adherent of a presi- 
dent — a subserviency altogether at variance with 
the old, independent and noble characte 
Mississippi in her better days. 

As we (as may have been surmised) are In 
favor of the State's paying off all her debts to 
the uttermost farthing, we are of the opinion 
that she ought to return a due measure of thanks 
to Mr. Robert J. Walker, as the identical para- 
site of power who introduced into and fastened 
upon the State, the New York Regency, or 
Van Buren school of tactics, making her the pliant 
tool of the national government and the mere 
footstool of national party puppets, who, when 
they wanted her, always knew where to find her, 
even down to Mr. James K. Polk himself 

Besides being simply disastrous, the period of 
Mr. Tucker's administration may be considered 
as a period disgraceful to the State, and to "the 
Democratic Rule" in particular. The first legis- 
lative session of that administration — that of 
1842 — is marked as that in which was carried 
into practical effect, the outrageous theories of 
Mr. Tucker's more original, determined and talent- 
ed predecessor, in relation to the State bonds, as 
the session of 1843 is distinguished by the attempt 
to carry out practically the principles of his cure 
for the evils of excessive banking, by disci 
ing the debtors of those corporations from their 
liabilities. We say the attempt, because, the 
passed by the House, the measure to which we 
allude (the "original Briscoe Bill") was 



222 

in the Senate, and the passage of it, in its "origin* 
al" deformity, fortunately, postponed until 1846, 
when, unfortunately, it was passed with more 
than its original deformity. 

Both these measures, notwithstanding the "con- 
stitutional" and "legal" perversions which mark 
the arguments generally used in their favor, in- 
volve an infringement of those Divine and Na- 
tural laws, without a respect for which, no gov- 
ernment can prosper or expect to be respected by 
its own citizens or foreigners. 

The first of these famous " Resolutions" 
[Acts of 1842, cm 127] declares that "the high, 
est duty of a republican State is the preservation 
of its written constitution." The second is to 
the effect that the power of taxation belongs to 
the Legislative department. The third, that the 
Legislature is the "exclusive judge of the objects 
for which money shall be raised and appropriated 
by its authority," &c. The fourth, that the Le- 
gislature has no right to " levy or appropriate 
money for the purpose of executing the objects 
of a law by them deemed repugnant to, or unau- 
thorized by the constitution," &c. The fifth, 
declares the Supplemental (Union Bank) bill 
unconstitutional. The sixth and principal reso- 
lution declares that the bonds for $5,000,000. 
"delivered to said bank, and by it sold to Nicholas- 
Biddle, on the 18th day of August 1838, are not 
binding upon her (Mississippi's) citizens, and 
cannot be paid by this State while the forms cf 
her present constitution remain." The seventh 
and last authorizes the governor to forbid the 
sale of the remaining bonds by proclamation, &c. 

The first and second seem to have been de- 
signed, to use a common and well understood ex- 
pression, "just for grandeur," or " to make a 
show." As to the third, no doubt the Legisla- 
ture which authorized the issuance of the bonds 
fully admitted its correctness, and, in accordance 
with it, "raised and appropriated" the money. 



223 

The fourth, as it simply asserts that the Le- 
gislature have no authority to do things deemed 
by them repugnant to or unauthorized by the. 
constitution, is a truism which the members 
of that body in 1S38 (and in every other year) 
probably felt to be such when they took their 
oaths. The fifth, (the unconstitutionality of 
the supplemental bill) is the main objection of 
every repudiator except Mr. McNutt, who ap- 
proved that bill, as governor, and who con- 
sequently was driven to make his principal ob- 
jection the " illegal sale" of the bonds under 
that very "bill," and which "illegal sale" argu- 
ment vanishes the instant it is decided that 
the supplemental bill is unconstitutional. The 
sixth resolution, without stopping to censure Mr. 
McNutt or upset his main objection, helps him 
out with the original intention of all "radical" 
repudiators that, by hook or by crook, the bonds 
should not be paid; and notwithstanding McNuU 
and Tucker, both, in certain of their messages 
[as to the latter, vide Senate Journal of '43, 
p. 39] hold that the State can, by the act of two 
legislautres, constitutionally raise the means and 
pay the bonds, Mr. Tucker approves and signs 
these Resolutions, the sixth of which states that 
they "cannot be paid by this State while the 
forms of the present constitution remain!" 

Now we must be allowed to say that after con- 
sidering over this whole matter for several years, 
it will appear to us that the determination not to 
pay at all, and to make party capital out of an 
appeal to the pockets of the people, w T as at the 
bottom of the whole affair; and, though Mr. 
Fucker may class us, and those who think with 
us, with those " unnatural citizens of this State 
who have proclaimed the State of Mississippi 
disgraced in the eyes of the civilized w T orld" 
i Sen. Jour. p. 37,] we take our stand upon the 
broad platform of the law of God, the law of 
nature, the law of nations and of common hon- 



224 

esty, and further, upon the broad proposition that 
the constitution commands no infringement of 
either, and defy him. Neither he, nor his 
illustrious predecessor can hoodwink those u un- 
natural citizens" with the humbug of "the con- 
stitution," which, after the money was had and 
squandered, by the mismanagement of their own 
party, was found so excellent a cover for an ap- 
peal to the pockets of the people, at the expense 
of their former high and honorable character, 
in times of pecuniary distress. We wish to see 
that party provide for paying the Planters'* Bank 
bonds before we can quite credit that their action 
in relation to the Union was not for the purpose 
of keeping up a political party (or rather of re- 
suscitating it, for it had been beaten in the presi- 
dential canvass of 1840,) by betraying the masses, 
by a pretended regard for the constitution and an 
appeal to their pockets degraded the State to the 
level of the most faithless government on earth. 
Every Mississippian should ask himself what 
these men have ever done for the State, to make 
it so desirable that they, or any mere party in na- 
tional politics, for their sake, should be in the 
ascendant, at the immense cost of the State's 
honor and faith ? If they can point to a single 
thing they have done for the real advantage of 
Mississippi — for her distinct and positive interest 
as a State, or otherwise — since the accession of 
McNutt to the present hour, we are ignorant of 
it. For what is the State indebted to them ex- 
cept disgrace at home and abroad, and the pros- 
tration of individual as well as State character 
and credit? Statesmen, forsooth! Statesmen! 
who, through their ignorance and selfish adhe- 
rence to party, have bankrupted the State in 
money as in credit. Financiers, too ! who have 
talked sagely as Solomons, of " the evils of the 
banking system," and, foolishly as idiots, of "a 
hard money currency," but have been at their 
wit's ends, and without effect, to raise. beg ov 



225 

borrow enough to pay the members of the legis- 
lature their per diem allowance — who, so far from 
paying the Planters' Bank bonds due, — have suf- 
fered a coupon of the State, for interest on that 
debt by themselves acknowledged, and for the 
despicable sum of $50, to be protested for non- 
payment ! Sticklers for the unsullied honor of 
the State in connexion with the payment of the 
Planters' Bank bonds, w T ho, during nine years of 
uninterrupted authority and power, with in- 
creased revenues, never have provided a dollar 
towards even that object, and while Repudiation 
will serve them as a party hobby, never will ! 
Sincere well wishers of the State— puissant 
champions of "the dignity, honor and justice of 
Mississippi," these, truly, to publish to the world 
that all the citizens of the State would skulk 
from even an acknowledment of the debt of the 
State, and that, for the sake of saving a few pal- 
try dollars per annum in taxes, we and our pos- 
terity among the rest of the minority, would 
and will, "while the form of the constitution re- 
mains," hold up a piece of parchment as a bar 
to the recovery of the sealed obligations of our 
State ! After all the reflection we have bestow r - 
ed upon the subject, we consider those resolu- 
tions a piece of party clap trap, uncalled for by 
any emergency. It was well known to every 
one that, at that time, the State had no means to 
pay with, and could pay nothing — not even the 
interest due on the Planters' Bank bonds, to say 
nothing of the Union : it was therefore wholly 
unnecessary, gratuitous, tyrannical and unjust for 
any set of men "dressed in a little brief author- 
ity" to proclaim that she would not pay — to 
thrust themselves forward and, in the opinion of 
the whole world — of every one — citizen or non- 
resident — except themselves publicly to disgrace 
us, and every other citizen of the State, with 
themselves. We deny the right of Mr. T. M. 
Tucker, governor, &c, Mr. Jesse Speight, pre- 



226 

sident of the Senate, and afterwards U. S. Sena* 
tor, Mr. R. W. Roberts, speaker of the House, 
and afterwards a member of Congress who de- 
nied that Mississippi had repudiated her debts in 
his place in '47,* Mr. Upton Miller, chairman 
of the joint committee on the part of the Senate 
which recommended Repudiation, and member 
of the Senate, on a minority vote, from a bond- 
paying county; or of Mr. JH. W. Flournoy, 
chairman on the part of the House, or of Mr. 
Parmenas Briscoe, father of the " Briscoe bill," 
Mr. Joseph S. Leake, the author of a Legisla- 
tive Report, responsive and adverse to the Reso- 
lutions of the Legislature of Kentucky against 
the repudiation of State debts, Mr. James E. 
Mathews, auditor of public accounts and cele- 
brated by " the Statesman" newspaper, Mr. Gor- 
don D. Boyd, author of a labored Report as early 
as 1842, against paying even the Planters'* Bank 
bonds, and formerly an office holder of the United 
States, or any of the other members of the 
House of Representatives or Senate, who in 
1842 voted for this sixth resolution — we deny the 

* " Carte and Tierce in the House of Representatives. — 
Mr. Culver, of New York, in his speech in the House of Repre- 
sentatives, charged that one of the Southern States had repudi- 
ated her contracts or bonds to the amount of seven millions of 
dollars. Mr. Roberts (a member of the House of Representa- 
tives from Mississippi) inquired what State, or if he alluded to 
Mississippi ? Mr. C. answered he did. Mr. Roberts said it was 
false ; it was a black-hearted slander. Mr. Culver inquired if 
the gentleman from Mississippi intended to say that he (Mr. C.) 
had told a falsehood ? Mr. Roberts : 1 do, sir; it is false — utterly 
untrue — it has no foundation in fact. [Here the chairman (Mr. 
Ficklin) called them to order." 

A t ote. — We cut the t,bove from a newspaper some time since, 
and we have not seen it contradicted. Whether Mr. Roberts 
meant that the charge of Mr. Culver "had no foundation in 
fact" because the amount of bonds cast off, disowned, foresworn 
or repudiated, (we are not particular about the word,) was only 
five millions instead of seven, or upon that recent refinement of 
'•the Rule" that the bonds signed and sealed by A. G. McNutt as 
governor, were not the State's bonds, and therefore having never 
owned them, she could not 'repudiate' them, or howsoever he 
may make out his positions, we do not know. This, however, 
we do know, that such resolutions as we have given an abstract 
of were passed in 1842, and that in the House Journal of that 
year, pages 1017 to 1023, Mr. Roberts' own vote, as Speaker of 
tne House, is regularly recorded in the affirmative on every re- 
solution on which the ayes and noes are given. 



right of these men, we say, without any special 
call therefor and in hot haste, to get up and pass 
and approve Resolutions deeply involving and 
impugning the moral character of the State and 
its individual citizens, at least in the opinion of 
the very large minority of citizens over whose 
votes Mr. Tucker was elected, to say nothing of 
the number who voted for him on grounds of 
national politics, and utterly disagreeing with him 
on the subject of repudiation, when they knew 
that minority did consider the taking of any such 
step a positive disgrace to the State, and to them- 
selves. Those men assumed to act and speak 
for the whole State, for all its citizens and for pos- 
terity, and without necessity or authority. They 
were unable, from the bankrupt condition to 
which they had reduced the State, and from their 
not daring to trust their popularity so far as to 
tax the people, to pay the debts of the State, and 
that was all they were entitled to proclaim to the 
world. They had no warrant or authority for 
attempting to fix an indelible stain upon Missis- 
sippi and all her citizens. 

In passing from the events of 1841 to those of 
1S42, we pass from the contemplation of that 
which, since the revelations of subsequent years, 
has been aptly enough termed "Radical Repudia- 
tion," to a view of what has, perhaps quite as 
appropriately, been designated "Half-way Repu- 
diation," at least so far as the Executive or lead- 
ing branch of the government is concerned. And 
we may here remark that, by this term, "leading," 
we mean what we say; for the influence of that 
branch in laying out work for the legislature, and 
especially by the free use of the veto power of 
late years, has, in fact, rendered itself such. 

While strongiy advocating the payment of the 
Planters' Bank bonds, My. Tucker was quite as 
much opposed to the payment of those issued to 
the Union Bank, as his predecessor. To look 
for any improvement in the "character and credit" 



223 

of the State, or in the public morals during this 
administration, would, therefore, be quite use- 
less — the course of these heresies in legislation 
being from bad to worse so long as an immoral 
principle is at the bottom of the action of the 
government. "Do as ye would that others 
should do unto you" is a cardinal principle of 
both the Divine and Natural law, and no perma- 
nent success can attend a governmental policy 
which rejects it. 

From the cognomen of "constitutional Tuck- 
er" bestowed by his party upon the head of the 
administration of '42-3, one would be led to look 
a little more particularly into his "constitutional 5 ' 
objections to paying the Union Bank bonds, than 
into those of his predecessor ; but whoever gives 
himself that trouble will find nothing to reward 
his labor. The "constitutional" objections of 
Mr. Tucker, constitute a revamped edition of 
those we have already noticed as emanating from 
his predecessor. It is true his speculations, both 
upon the constitutionality and morality (!) of 
repudiation are a little more finely spun ; but we 
deny that they are entitled to any more consider- 
ation or respect. Whether it was on account of 
his metaphysical notions of the unconstitutionali- 
ty of the original charter, of the Union Bank, as 
expressed in his protest in the Senate, in 1838, 
[Jour. p. 227] or his sophistical attacks upon the 
more available "supplemental bill," after he was 
elected Governor, that he received the soubri- 
quet of "constitutional," we are at a loss to dis- 
cover ; but, that he was determined to render 
himself remarkable in connexion with "that sa- 
cred instrument," by making every constitutional 
point possible, even to the verge of utter absurd- 
ity, would seem to be the case, not less from the 
statements of the protest just alluded to and the 
constitutional doubts which led him to reject ta- 
king such decided steps with the defaulting State 
Treasurer, R. S. Graves, as would have secured 



that Swartwoutmg individual and a great part of 
the money he carried off with him, than his vet 
of the bill to incorporate the Centenary College, 
[House Jour, of 1842, p. 1075] or some of the 
objections he urged against a bill "to prevent 
the spread of infectious diseases among horses." 
... Jour, of 1842, p. 635.] As to most oi 
his constitutional objections contained in his mes- 
sage on vetoing a bill "in relation to special terms 
of the Circuit Court of the county of Warren 71 
[Sen. Jour, of 1S42, p. 401] and his opposition 
to the "ecclesiastical name" of the trustees of 
Church Hill Academy [Sen. Jour, of 1843, p. 
235] we do not profess to be able to comprehend 
them ; but we see nothing in the whole of his 
protests and veto messages, collectively, to enti- 
tle him to any particular distinction as a "consti- 
tutional" lawyer. 

Again : we think it no more than fair that, out 
■>f abundant caution, his excellency's own idea 
of lawyers, he being one, should be quoted in 
his own case. In his message in 1843, in argu- 
ing in favor of paying the Planters'* Bank bonds, 
he says [House Jour. p. 28.] 

: 'Soon after the passage of the act incorporating the 
Planters' Bank, it was contended by some distinguished 
lawyers in behalf of the Bank of Mississippi that the 
act creating said Bank of Mississippi was a contrar 
between the State and the stockholders of said Bank — 
that the act chartering the Planters' Bank, during the 
existence of the Bank of Mississippi, was in violation 
of the 10th section of said contract and was unconstitu- 
tional, inasmuch as it impaired the obligation of that 
contract. I differed at the time, and still do, from those. 
gentlemen i learned in the lav:, v:hose opinions art 
times influenced by the weight of their fee p 

Now, whether being the head of a political 
party and Governor of a State would be a "fee" 
of sufficient "weight" to influence the "opinion'' 
of "gentlemen learned in the law," his excellen- 
cy, being one of those gentlemen, ought to have 
stated, as it would have been more modest tha 
have left it to be inferred that all lawyers, except 



230 

hwyself, are so influenced Be this as it may , 
there will certainly be time enough to get up 
metaphysical theories about "that sacred instru- 
ment 5 ' and "ihe sacred regard of the people for 
it," (which was just as sacred when the money 
was borrowed as when the interest fell due) after 
the Union Bank bonds are taken up and cancelled 
and the money received for them (even by the 
State's faithless agents, and spent by them in a 
foolish manner, and deducting the "illegal inter- 
est," if you will) is paid back; as there will also 
be time enough to give the Tucker faction of 
"the Rule" credit for the sincerity they claim. 
after they shall have paid the instalments and 
interest due on the Planters' Bank bonds, which 
they solemnly professed to believe constitutional, 
even if it should cost them the price of a seces- 
sion from the "radical repudiators" they profess 
to contemn, and a junction with those of different 
■national politics, who stand ready to go any 
length with them toward paying the bonds of the 
State, in whole or in part. But, while we re- 
member the denunciation of Gov. Brown in 1846, 
for insisting upon the payment of the Planters' 
Bank bonds only, we must be allowed to feel a 
little doubtful of the purity of that "patriotism'" 
and "sacred regard for the constitution," and fear 
of "trampling that sacred instrument under foot" 
by paying the State's sealed obligations, which 
induced them to join the "radicals" in their re- 
pudiating resolutions. 

We have quite as good a right to take this 
view of Mr. Tucker's conduct as he has to de- 
nounce ws, as he does in the following extract 
from his chief message in 1843, in common with 
those other "citizens" who differ with him, le- 
gally and morally, on the subject of the Union 
Bank bonds. 

:; Someofihe unnatural citizens of this State have 
proclaimed the sovereign State o( Mississippi disgrace J 
in the eyes the civilized world because the majority of 
the people thereof have dared, in good faith, to adhere to 



231 

and maintain inviolate this most sacred provision o( 
their own constitution, and because they have refusi 
ratify its violation by the paymeut of a debt contracted 
in palpable fraud of its provisions, contracted not by the 
State, but by individuals who arrogated to themselves, 
contrary to the fact, that they were the agents ot the 
State for thai purpose." [House Jour, of 1843, p.' 37.] 

Moreover, we have as good a right to consider 
those men who voted for the repudiating resolu- 
tions "unnatural citizens," recreant and traitor- 
ous to the best interests of Mississippi, as they 
had, by those resolutions, to fasten upon us, and 
upon a State as much our State as their's, with- 
out our consent , the infernal stain of repudiation. 
And we have also the right (and we shall exer- 
cise it) of considering their noise about "that 
sacred instrument" a mere farago and humbug, 
got up for party purposes, until we are better in- 
formed by their imposing a tax to take up the 
instalment and interest due on those bonds they 
pretended in '42 to consider a constitutional and 
just debt — to-wit, the Planters' Bank bonds. 

Many of the arguments used by Gov, Tucker in 
favor of paying the Planters'* Bank bonds, would 
be quite as applicable to the Union Bank bonds, 
and most of those he uses against paying the lat- 
ter, are no more plausible, though more guarded, 
than those of Mr. Gordon D. Boyd in his mi- 
nority report [House Jour, of 1842, p. 938, ] 
against paying the Planters' bonds. Disposing 
of the "constitutional" question arising on the 
latter, to the effect that they cannot be paid, and 
asserting that the whole matter is in the hands 
of the people, the learned and experienced com- 
mentator on Governmental finances last named, 
speaks of the obligations of a sovereign State 
thus : [p. 946.] 

•Many of these laws known as national, are nothing 
more than a part and parcel of the same system of hum- 
buggery which has been used in all ages to hood win k 
mankind, and have their origin in pretty much the same 
manner in which oracles spoke; and which have about 
as much to do with the justice of the cause as the wear- 
ing of gowns and wigs in courts has to do with the ad- 
ministration of justice between contending litigants ;: 



232 

This is going for a sort of general repudiation 
"with a rush ;" but it is only carrying out such 
of Mr. Tucker's views, as are confined to the 
Union Bank bonds, and such of his predecessor's 
as are applied to both sets of bonds. 3n relation 
to considering the people so "sovereign" as to 
borrow money when they please and refuse to 
repay it when they please, without regard to the 
opinion of other nations or posterity, and in "ap- 
peals to the people" generally, Mr. Boyd but 
carries out the views of "the Rule-," as expressed 
by its orators and presses, to the letter. 

The passage of the "original Briscoe bill" by 
the House in 1843 was another outrageous pro- 
ceeding of the Tucker administration — the very 
acme of the sin and shame of that system of 
legislating men out of debt which commenced 
in 1837, as shown in our 4th chapter and has 
continued up to the session of '46 — a system of 
legalizing frauds on the rights of creditors. 

Against this bill, sixteen of the most intelligent 
and respectable members of the House, of both 
parties in national politics, (but we believe not a 
single radical repudiator) protested, [House 
Jour, of 1843, p. 201] denouncing it as "rank 
and unmitigated injustice, unrelieved by any ex- 
cuse or palliation." Fortunately, the measure 
was arrested in the Senate, which body added the 
amendment commonly called "the Guion amend- 
ment," which being concurred in by the House, 
saved the rights of creditors until the further 
^-progress" of "the Democratic Rule," in 1846, 
swept them by the board. 

The "orignal Briscoe bill" has caused so much 
discussion since 1S43, that it is needless to spend 
much time upon it here. Suffice it to say it pro- 
vided for closing up the banks by a forfeiture of 
their charters and extinguishing all their claims 
upon the "dear people." Had it become a law 
in the shape in which it first passed the House, 
Mr. Tucker's administration would have been 



233 

not only of the repudiation of the pub- 
lic debts, but of the private debts of individuals 
due to charted institutions- The latter however, 
as we have said, was left to illustrate the greater 
-•progress" the Rule had made under the present 
Governor, Mr. A. G. Brown, in 1846 ; of w T bich, 
more in its place. There are some indications 
that this "progress" in legislating people out of 
debt will not stop here, but that, under Mr. 
Brown's successor, unless the Rule reforms, or 
is " reformed out of office" by the people, repu- 
diation of debt will be carried into contracts be- 
tween man and man. The system of relief laws 
we have noticed have prepared the way, and it 
only remains to declare the "principle" boldly. 
It is equally justifiable with repudiating those 
between man and corporations. Immoral legis- 
lation is "progressive" — its course is onward. 
The only safety for the people is to make a strong 
effort — eradicate it — cut it up root and branch — 
recur to the old fashioned kind of principle, and 
abide by it. 



CHAPTER XIX. 

The period of the Tucker administration was 
disgraceful to "the Democratic Rule" in particu- 
lar, from the embezzlement of a large amount of 
the funds of the State by the State Treasurer, 
Richard S. Graves. A part of this amount w r as 
recovered, reducing the loss to the State to about 
fifty thousand dollars, with which the treasurer 
absconded, having first been in custody and given 
his keepers the slip. He subsequently publish- 
ed a pamphlet in which he accused nearly every 
executive officer of the Tucker administration of 
misdemeanors, and which, having been exten- 
sively circulated through the State, may be con- 
sulted by the curious. 

This Graves affair is a very curious one. It 

not appear that the object of that individu- 

to actually to pocket a large amount of money 



.234 

and abscond with it, but that he certainly did in- 
tend to, and, in fact, did speculate, for private 
gain, with the State's funds in his hands, as trea- 
surer. If he had intended to do the former, it is 
very plain, as he says himself in his pamphlet. 
that the time to have done so would have been 
when he was at the North with the large amount 
of funds he had drawn from the treasury of the 
United States ir* his possession ; instead of doing 
which, he returned with it, or rather with the 
^constitutional currency" for which he exchang- 
ed it, to Mississippi : but that he intended to 
make the most he could of it, so as to show a 
Hush account of the finances when called on, 
(notwithstanding he endeavors, and very plausi- 
bly, to show that the committee of the House 
which reported the amount of the actual defalca- 
tion, was mistaken) is apparent from a single fact 
proved against him on his examination, just be- 
fore his escape, and admitted by himself in his 
pamphlet, namely : that he passed off sovereigns, 
(worth $4 84-100) in making payments for the 
State, for five dollars, while his excuse for it, 
that he wished, in this way, to reimburse him- 
self for his expenses in going on to Washington 
to receive the funds, is, on its face, a flimsy hum- 
bug. He had no right to go to any expense on 
account of the State for such a purpose, or any 
other, unauthorized by law; and, if he chose to 
do so at his own expense, had no right to reim- 
burse himself by speculating with the State's 
money. Beside this acknowledged mode of spec- 
ulation, there can be no doubt of the determina- 
tion of Mr. Graves, to buy up the State warrants 
at a depreciation with the State's own gold, and 
credit himself as treasurer with the full amount 
called for on their face. The reflection of the 
thoughtful reader is here arrested by the subject 
of the state of morals induced by the times, 
which, in but too many instances, led fiduciary 
officers to consider such things mere trifles. 



235 

The primary charge made by the Governor 
against Mr. Graves was that he clandestinely 
drew and appropriated a larger amount of the 
three per cent, fund than he was authorized to 
do, and also the large amount of $144,000 of 
the two per cent, fund, without any shadow of 
authority whatever. This, the treasurer flatly 
denies, and charges, adversely, that, not only the 
Governor himself, but the Auditor of Public Ac- 
counts, the Attorney General and Public Printer 
all knew of the circumstance, and received cer- 
tain sums due them for services from those very 
funds, in specie, knowing there was no specie in 
the treasury, out of which to pay them, other 
than that for which he had cashed the General 
Government's drafts. He further states that, 
besides knowing the fact, certain of those officers 
advised him to keep the fact of his having re- 
ceived these funds a secret, so that they, them- 
selves, might continue to receive specie, as their 
salaries became due, and even suggested to him 
that, should the fact of the specie being in the 
treasury be generally known, the unpaid warrants 
would be presented for payment and absorb it. 

On the examination, however, those officers 
swore they knew nothing of his receipt of 
these funds, against which, something stronger 
than Mr. Graves' assertions should be required 
to create a belief that they did know of it. Al- 
though he produces various letters, certificates, 
&c, to substantiate these monstrous charges, the 
impartial historian can by no means pretend to 
say they are entitled to much consideration. 
The chain of evidence he attempts to form of 
them, is connected by links consisting only of 
his own statements, which, under the circum- 
stances of his case, need corroboration. Besides 
this, the committee of the House, appointed to 
investigate the matter, either tacitly or positively, 
exonerated all these officers; and that committee, 
:eing composed of members of various party 



236 

politics, and having the circumstances of the 
case fresh before them, were, it is to be presum- 
ed, correct in their conclusions. 

It is to be remarked that those who were 
most violent in their denunciations of the other 
officers of the Tucker administration, were of 
their own party. Among these, Mr. McNutt, 
the Ex-Governor, was conspicuous, while Mr. 
Hagan, editor of the "Vicksburg Sentinel," bold- 
ly asserted in his paper that "these high function- 
aries are as deep in the mud as Graves is in the 
mire, 5 ' and stated that this was the only reason 
why Lynch law was not administered, while 
other papers openly advised that Graves should 
be Lynched. But, though this course toward 
the Tucker administration emanated, as we have 
said, from the democratic party, it is to be re- 
membered that it was from a violent faction of 
that party, and that feuds among those who have 
been friends, being proverbially more bitter and 
reckless than the warfare of open and avowed 
opponents, the assertions of such a faction should 
always be submitted to a very rigid scrutiny be- 
fore they are adopted. The accusations of the 
absconding treasurer were, as we have seen, very 
serious — imputing one of the worst of crimes to 
several of the other administrative officers ; but, 
while considerable bitterness of feeling, in the 
situation to which he had been reduced, might 
be very natural, the unnecessary personalities 
and blackguardism to which he descends in black- 
ening not only the private character of his al- 
leged enemies, but even that of some of their 
relatives, evince a weak cause. 

Whatsoever of the dark charge of Mr. Graves 
against the other members of the government, in 
relation to the testimony given by them on his 
examination, may have been, or is now, believed 
by the more violent leaders of the ultra repudia- 
ting or McNutt faction of the democratic party, 
some of whom are still at sword's points with 



237 

certain of the officers of the Tucker administra- 
tion, it must be inferred that the great majority 
of the party itself, which was, of course, a ma- 
lority of the people of the State, did not and do 
not now believe that charge; for they have, twice 
Mnce that time, re-elected the special objects of 
Mr. Graves' denunciation to the same high offices 
they then held, and it is not to be supposed that 
so large a body of citizens would be so recreant 
to every feeling of self-respect and State pride 
(without even the salvo of a pretended "consti- 
tutional" or "legal" excuse) as to vote for men 
for those high offices whom they believed guilty 
of a deep and damning crime. The well known 
fact also, that many of the most violent partisans 
of the McNutt faction have also regularly voted 
for the same men, would seem to be conclusive 
that they do not seriously believe the very charge 
to which many of them have, on other occasions, 
appeared to be willing to give credit. In his 
work, Mr. Graves offered, upon a guarantee of 
security to his person from violence, to leave 
the mysterious retreat to which he had fled, 
return to the State and prove the charges he 
made. This opportunity was never tendered to 
him, though it is proper to add here that the 
governor's dilatoriness and indecision in proceed- 
ing against the offender, which had called forth 
severe censures and serious charges from his 
enemies, was excused by the committee of the 
House on the ground of his "constitutional" 
scruples in regard to a more prompt and efficient 
course in the matter, and that they fully excul- 
pated him from "improper motives." 

The weakest part of the whole course of Mr. 
Tucker in this affair was the special pleading in 
his message of '43, by which he endeavored to 
throw the loss on the United States government, 
which had paid over the funds afterwards em- 
bezzled, to Graves, as State Treasurer, notwith- 
standing he had himself written to the Secretary 



238 

of the Treasury of the United States that "Rich- 
ard S. Graves, Esq., Treasurer of the State of 
Mississippi, is duly authorized to receive all 
money due to the State of Mississippi, as well 
from the three per cent, fund as from all other 
sources," and that "it was formerly the duty of 
the governor to receive this fund, but, by subse- 
quent legislation, the duty devolved upon the 
State Treasurer," which is, it is true, a very 
broad construction of the Statute. [Vide House 
Jour, of 1S43, p. 271 to 279.] In this legal ef- 
fort, his excellency was no more logical or con- 
vincing than in his "constitutional" harrangues. 

To the loss from the peculations of the Trea- 
surer, must be added the expense of the extra 
session of the legislature of 1843, of the calling 
of which the Graves affair was undoubtedly the 
principal cause. 

In looking over a communication of this "Rich- 
ard S. Graves, Esq.," to the House in 1842 
[Jour. 1065] we find that he was a true disciple 
of "the Rule" — full of "retrenchment and reform 57 
(and self-glorification) unable to close a com- 
munication to the legislature without an allusion 
to the honor and glory of the country or her 
prowess in arms. This communication was vol- 
untary and, professedly, to "defend his character" 
from alleged slanders against him by the State 
architect, whose estimates of the cost of certain 
public buildings, he had cut down. As the last 
paragraph is a fair sample of the office holder 
style of patriotism, we extract a few passages. 
The reader will please mind the italics, which, 
except the word auld, are ours. 

"It was to be hoped that no man could have been found 
so destitute of principle , so lost to every feeling of honor, 
as to wish to be kept in office doing nothing and, for his 
services, receiving a heavy salary. This was not to be 
expected, at least, of this distinguished son of auld Eng- 
land who has received for labor and his services almost 
a princely fortune from the State of Mississippi — who 
has been rolling in luxury and wealth, drained from the 
hard earnings of the people of Mississippi, for the last 



six 01 seven years. I am sorry, very sorry, I have been 
compelled, in self -defence ^ to address this communication 
to your honorable body. I could not. in justice to myself 
or friends, have done otherwise. / have nothing to fear 
from the attacks of such men as William Nichols. / 
shall faithfully discharge the duties of the office to which 
1 have been elevated by the free suffrages of my fellow - 
citizens t regardless of men who are more secure behind 
their own infamy than Gen. Jackson was behind his cotton 
bales at yew Orleans." 

As on a previous occasion, we suggest to the 
reader to repeat, in a loud, sounding, bold tone, 
merely the words we have italicised, and to ob- 
serve what a glorious electioneering speech they 
would make of themselves! After that, by way of 
practical improvement, the whole might be read 
deliberately, the reader bearing in mind the fifty 
thousand dollars Mr. Graves owes the State and 
repudiates. This may serve as a lesson on the 
emptiness of profession and the beauties of the 
caucus system, which enabled this admirer of 
"Gen. Jackson and his cotton bales" to get the 
votes of a majority of the people of the State, 
ninety-nine hundredths of whom knew nothing 
about him except from the implied assurance of 
one of those humbugs called conventions, that he 
was a thorough partisan and an out and out re- 
pudiator — in other words, that he was not one of 
those "unnatural citizens," so denounced by Mr. 
Tucker, "who proclaim the State disgraced" by 
repudiation of any and all sorts and stripes. 

The way in which the State's business was man- 
aged and her money squandered, under the admin- 
istration which repudiated the Union Bank bonds, 
may be further illustrated by reference to a Re- 
port to the House during the session of 1843 
[Jour. 282.] from which it appears that some 
610 lots in the town of Commerce, in Tunica 
county, of so little value that the taxes on them 
all, amounted only to forty-nine dollars and twen- 
ty-nine cents, were all advertised for sale for taxes 
in a good repudiating paper in an adjoining coun- 
ty, in separate advertisements, at the cost of sev- 



240 

en dollars each, making the round charge of four 
thousand two hundred and seventy dollars. These 
lots, with this chaige upon them, were bought in 
by the tax collector, for the State, he charging 
$510 for executing separate deeds for them, and 
$213 97 for his commissions. These amounts 
were claimed of the State by the publisher and 
tax collector, and made, together, the enormous 
sum of four thousand, nine hundred and ninety 
three dollars and ninety seven cents for "lots r 
which w;ere generally unimproved and worth 
nothing, to secure the payment of less than fifty 
dollars of taxes! 

This, however, is not the worst of it; for bad 
as would have been the bargain on the part of 
the State, if her title to the lots had been good, 
it was not worth a straw ! The Report says: 

"Nearly all the lots were advertised and sold, and 
deeds executed to the State therefor, without ascertain^ 
the name of the person as whose property they were 
sold, which your committee believe might have been 
easily done by reference to the office of the Probate 
Cierk*. and for want of which, the State hasprobabb-. 
we might say certainly, acquired no title by the purchaser' 

The " committee" reported against the claim , 
as well as other similar ones from Carroll, Pon- 
totoc and De Soto counties, the particulars of 
which are not given. As to the Tunica county 
affair, it may have been a just decision so far as 
the tax collector's claim was concerned, because 
he did not advertise in such a manner as to make 
his sale valid ; but how the printer, who had 
nothing to do but follow his copy, could be ousted 
of the usual, published price of advertising, and 
his bill repudiated, we are at a loss to discover. 
The committee seem to think he ought to have 
bought the lots, at the tax sale, himself; but we 
know of no obligation upon him to have taken 
so hard a bargain on his own shoulders. The 
fault lay in the ridiculous sort of legislation 
which has marked "the Rule,'' from Alpha to 
Omega. An act was afterwards passed for the 



241 

relief of the printer, by which, if we recollect, 
he obtained some $2500 or thereabout. 

The law regulating the advertising, sale, 
amount and time of redemption, &c., of lands for 
taxes, has been altered, amended, re-enacted, 
or, in some manner interfered with, at every ses- 
sion of the legislature, from that of 1841, inclu- 
sive, (and sometimes twice, by conflicting laws, 
during the same session, as in 1841,) to a degree 
which rendered it next to impossible for any one 
to know what the law was, except certain keen, 
sharp-witted speculators, who have made snug 
little sums or obtained or kept possession of valu- 
able property by means of following the tbing 
up closely, as a business — of which we shall 
speak more particularly before closing this chap- 
ter. In the mean time, the reader may perhaps 
improve himself by devoting a few moments to 
reflecting upon the prime cause of all these irre- 
gularities in public affairs, which is to say, the 
want of statesmanship of "the Rule," their pro- 
found ignorance of finance, their desperate shifts 
to raise a revenue to meet even the common, 
ordinary, current expenses of the State, and in 
short, their utter impotence in all things relating 
to sustaining the " character and credit" of the 
State, where blusterings about M that sacred in- 
strument, the constitution" and Repudiation will 
not avail them. 

But notwithstanding the great pressure for 
money bearing upon the government, during the 
Tucker administration it appears that there were 
cases in which "the Rule" refused to make a good 
bargain for the State even when it was offered 
them. We have before alluded to the "reform" 
of "the Rule" in relation to the immense expense 
of the public printing — viz: the passage of a 
law in 1841 directing the Secretary of State to 
issue proposals for the printing with a view of 
giving it, irrespective of the politics of the ap- 
plicant, to the lowest bidder. We have also 



242 

stated that one cent was bid by a favorite of "the 
Rule," which of course precluded every other 
competitor ; as to have done the printing would 
of course have cost money. It is therefore quite 
as evident that the bidder at one cent must have 
known a law would be passed to relieve him 
from all loss, after his competitors were excluded 
by the bid of "one cent," as that the legislature 
actually did pass such a law in 1842. [Acts p. 71.J 
Now, upon what certain calculation upon the 
future operations of a government professing to 
be that of "the people," any political partisan 
could thus seemingly risk several thousand dol- 
lars, and thereby exclude all competitors not of 
the "right stripe," is left to the reader to decide. 
A. beautiful specimen of "retrenchment," truly. 

That nothing was lost by it, by the bidders at 
onf cent, the Appropriation Act of 1842, [Ch. 7. 
arts. 100 and 101,1 will make manifest. By the 
first of these, the amount allowed Messrs. Price 
and Fall for printing done during that session, 
was $4,247 ; and, by the second, Mr. Price was 
allowed for the "public printing from February 
25th, 1841> to 1st January, 1842, inclusive, the 
sum of $2053." 

In relation to the re-print of the Statutes up 
to 1838, it would seem from the House Journal 
of 1842, that the conjecture we hazarded in a 
previous chapter, to the effect that the work cost 
the State between $9000 and $10,000, was 
.about right. Mr. Fall, the State printer, address- 
ed several communications to the Legislature of 
1842, demanding an investigation of certain char- 
ges of defalcation, in this matter, against him. 
Among the communications, there is one [House 
Jour. 1842, p. 774,] to which is appended a 
correspondence between Mr. F. and ex-Governor 
McNutt. The latter in a letter to Mr. F. states 
the account as follows : 



243 

* I paid to Jno. D. Toy. [the printer of the 

' books, in Baltimore,] - $3958 77 

For premium on checks, - - - 21 17 

Freight, 91 5~> 

Hauling books from Vicksburg. - - 175 4b 

You received in 1837, - - ' - - 4.500 00 

" 1338, - 700 00 

Total amount expended for the publication, $9,446 90 

Amount appropriated for the re- 
print in May, 1837 - - $4,500 00 

Amount appropriated for the re- 
print in Febiuary, 1838 - 5,700 00—10,200 00 

which leaves a balance in vour favor of $753 OS. &c. ,] 

[p. 776] 

Mr. McNutt also says to Mr. Fall, "had I con- 
sidered you a defaulter, I certainly should have 
sued you on your bond," and this confirms what 
we said as to his excellency, viz : that if there 
had been any thing in the charge, he would not 
have been the man to blink it. But then, in the 
correspondence between him and Mr. Toy, 
which was called for by theJIouse and furnished 
by Mr. Tucker, [House Jour, of 1S42, p. 559,] 
Mr. McNutt says, "I have not had, and will not 
have any thing to do with Col. Fall. He has 
forfeited his bond to the State, and you inform 
me he has failed in his contract with you." These 
incongruities in the sayings and doings of states- 
men are often very perplexing to historians, who 
are thereby frequently thrown entirely out of 
their calculations, and dumbfounded when they 
ought to express an opinion. Now, it may be 
remembered that we have noticed in a previous 
chapter the message of Mr. McNutt in 1S39. 

Sen. Jour. p. 341 in which he says "the total 
cost of the 2250 copies in Baltimore, will not 
vary much from $4000, " exclusive of freight, 
Uc. Again, the correspondence with Mr. Toy, 

House Jour, of 1842, p. 551] Mr. Toy says he 
••made the estimates at the lowest rates, amount- 
ing, in all, to $3012 50, which was agreed to 
ol. Fall." This was for all the acts up to 
1S38, while the $4000 spoken of by the Gov- 



244 

ernor was a calculation including the acts of '38. 
This would seem to be a sufficient addition for 
the acts of one year ; but it will be perceived 
that it was really insignificant by comparing it 
with the increase which took place, without any 
further addition of acts, between the date of the 
statement of Mr. McNutt in 1838, and the date 
of the above account, after deducting the freight, 
exchange, &e. If the report of Mr. Chilton, 
chairman of a select committee of three, to 
make some inquiry into this matter, [House 
Jour. 778, and 974,] had been honored with a 
publication, we might thence draw a proper con- 
clusion; but, as it is we shall merely adhere to 
our statement in a previous chapter, viz : that 
the book cost the State an enormous sum, for 
such a book, notwithstanding it includes the 
Acts of 1838, and an index, which Mr. McNutt 
in his letter above referred to, says Mr. Fall did 
not undertake to make, and we add, in justice to 
Mr. Fall, that at page 992, of the House Jour 
for 1842, we find a request from him that the 
Attorney General be directed to sue him and let 
the judicial tribunals decide the question. 

There is no better established maxim than that 
a corrupt government will make a corrupt people, 
and, following in the wake of a repudiating gov- 
ernment, the morals of " the people" did not at 
all improve under the administration of Mr. 
Tucker. In fact, the moral tone fell several 
degrees. We have said before, that, unfortu- 
nately for themselves, the people of Mississippi 
had been taught too much law,—^ more than it is 
good for any people to know — by the movements 
of the Democratic Rule in favor of relieving 
debtors from their debts. Among other things, 
they refused to pay for their negroes in numerous 
cases, and "that sacred instrument, the constitu- 
tion' J was frequently pleaded against notes given 
to the negro traders for slaves, out of whose ser- 
vices the makers of these notes had, in many 



245 

instances, made their full value. Some, not so 
smart as their neighbors, who had not thoaght 
of pleading the " nigger plea," as it came to be 
termed in common parlance, attempted to set 
aside the judgments obtained against them on 
these notes, by proceedings in chancery. It was 
quite common to hear " that sacred instrument" 
appealed to in these cases, with a pathos that 
must hav r e melted a genuine repudiator to tears, 
even in instances as outrageous as the following: 
A., living near the Tennessee line, prevailed on 
B., a Tennesseean, who had a fine lot of negroes, 
and who was ignorant of the constitutional pro- 
vision against introducing negroes into the State 
of Mississippi as merchandize after a certain date, 
to come over the line with his negroes and sell 
them to him (A.) on time. When the note given 
for them fell due, A., with his hand on his heart, 
and in the most solemn manner, protested that he 
could not think of violating "that sacred instru- 
ment, the constitution," by paying for them, and 
that he would be recreant to every principle of 
honor, dignity, patriotism, &c. &c, could he sub- 
mit to interfere with the li public policy" of his 
dear State, by returning the negroes, even after 
having had their services gratis for one or two 
years, and refusing to pay even so much as their 
hire. 

In support of this most admirable morality, 
engendered by the "principle" of repudiation, 
and the example of the State, it was laughable 
to hear the "common law," which had a most 
remarkable part to play, also, in the arguments in 
favor of the "Briscoe Bill," mouthed and sput- 
tered forth as forbidding (i. e. not compelling) 
the return of the property. In the one case, 
this revered "common law" stepped in to punish 
the seller of the prohibited article, which, under 
the constitution, he^could not get his money for, 
.allow ing the buyer to keep it, we suppose, as 
a reward for violating "that sacred instrument." 
w 2 



246 

and in the other case, to "extinguish" the debt* 
of bank debtors, so that bank creditors could get 
nothing ; the peculiar beauty of the latter con- 
sisting in the application of the law relating to 
the forfeiture of corporate franchises of anti- 
quity, and intended to operate on religious of 
eleemosynary corporations, before moneyed of 
trading corporations were known 1 

In other "nigger" cases, fhis "sacred regard 
for the constitution" and conscientious preserva- 
tion of "the public policy" might be carried as 
far, for example, as this: A. purchases negroes 
of a "trader" on credit, and gives his notes for 
them, indorsed by his friend, B. After a time, 
A. finds he cannot pay his notes, and, having 
eld fashioned scruples, now nearly out of date,, 
goes to his endorser, B., and sells the negroes to 
him, to secure him for his endorsement, and leav- 
ing him (B.) to pay the notes. B. takes the ne- 
groes, gets a bill of sale for them, carries them 
to his plantation, sets them to work and makes 
tremendous crops, &c; but, when the "trader" 
comes for payment of the notes, B. sets up the 
"unconstitutionality" of the consideration, and 
will neither pay nor return the negroes, though 
A., who could easily have kept them on the same 
terms, insists on his paying for them ! 

Now we suppose, if we should say that, while 
this sort of "sacred regard for the constitution," 
not manifested in isolated cases, but stalking 
abroad in the land, like the pestilence at noon- 
day, is in fashion, it would make but little differ- 
ence to " the people" how many churches were 
built, or how much preaching and praying done, 
or how many converts made, there may be a few 
rational, common-sense, matter-of-fact, moral men 
among our readers, who would not think us very 
irreverent. But we have more to tell. 

It was not only a matter of frequent occur- 
rence as early as '41, and carried to its height in 
^-'3, for men to allow their lands to be sold for 



247 

taxes which they were perfectly able to pay, ior 
the purpose of getting some friend to buy them 
in, and so oust a judgment creditor or mortgagee 
of his lien, but it is a notorious fact that such 
proceedings were, far and wide, reduced to a sys- 
tem; the operators, well knowing the uncertain ty 
attending tax titles, watching the public officers 
from the assessment of the property, through the 
process of advertising, to the end of the sale and 
the very wording of the tax deed, to see that all 
was exactly "legal,'' from beginning to end, and 
preserving carefully all the necessary proofs of 
every step taken ! Nor is this yet all ; for the 
legislature in 1843, raised the rate of the redemp- 
tion of lands bought at tax sales from 16 per 
cent, per annum to fifty per cent., if redeemed 
during the first year, and one hundred per cent., 
if not until the second year, and actually pre- 
scribed a short form of tax deed, and enacted, in 
relation to it as follows : [Acts of '43, chapter 
1, section 6.] 

11 Which deed shall be prima facie evidence that the 
tax collector performed' all things required by law of 
him before selling the same, and that he was authorized 
by law to sell the same for taxes; and said deed shall 
not be impeached, unless for some neglect or fraud di- 
rectly charged and proved" 

Thus unprecedented]}' throwing the proof of 
a negative on those who would contest the tax 
titles, and this, after having abolished the adver- 
tisement of tax sales in the newspapers, and sub- 
stituted posting up the only notice of the sales 
on court house doors or street corners! 

There may be wiser statesmen among "the 
Democrat Rule" than we are, who may convince 
themselves and "the people" that these practi- 
cal effects of legislating the State and individu- 
als out of debt, are very good indications of the 
healthy state of the public morals, and that they 
tend to preserve "that sacred instrument, the 
constitution," from being "trampled on ;" or that, 
since, according to them, the two seem to be in- 



24S 

compatible, it is better to go for the inviolability 
(as they conceive it) of "the constitution," than 
to make the slighest effort to preserve a respect 
for the obligation of e very-day contracts or that 
old-fashioned, straight-forward honesty , without 
a regard for which, it was believed not very long 
since, no people could be prosperous or happy. 
Be that as it may, we have seen nothing in all 
their vaporings about "that sacred instrument," 
the " sacred regard " for which has always 
seemed to grow into a fierce flame of patriotic 
enthusiasm whenever a debt was to be evaded 
by it, to convince us that they understand the 
science of government and the real and perma- 
nent welfare of "the people" better than we do. 
They may so far forget the common principles 
of right and justice as to assert that if, by these 
tricks as to notes given for negroes and in rela- 
tion to purchases of their own property at tax 
sales, the people only defrauded some foreign 
bond holder, "in whose veins flow r ed the blood 
of Judas and Shylock," or some "soulless corpo- 
ration," such tricks would be justifiable in the 
eye of God, as well as preservative of "that sa- 
cred instrument ;" but we are utterly unable to 
subscribe to the doctrine. 

God knows it is with no wish to injure farther 
the "character and credit" of the people or the 
State, than their Rulers have already done, that 
we enumerate these evidences of the existence 
of a bad state of morals. These derelictions 
from true principle are the effect of bad govern- 
ment and the bad example set by the State her- 
self, under the control of the leaders of the De- 
mocratic party for the last nine years. We do 
not charge being swayed by these examples 
upon the members of that party, but upon the 
people at large, w T ho are responsible, in mass, for 
being at least so far swayed from the proper line 
of conduct and the high sense of honor and of 
right which once distinguished them, as to cotin- 



249 

tenance, wink at or tacitly overlook bad conduct 
in individuals who are willing and ready to go any 
length society will tolerate. We have but held 
up a faithful mirror of stubborn facts, in order 
that the people may see the deformity of the 
evils, and reform the state of things around them, 
resting upon the truth of the maxim, and recom- 
mending it to the consideration of our fellow citi- 
zens, that "our best friends are those who tell us of 
our faults" — and that those who pander to those 
faults for the sake of personal advantage to them- 
selves — such as office — are their worst enemies. 

We do not pretend to say that, in the best 
regulated states, and among a people of the high- 
est character, there will not be individual in- 
stances of dereliction from principle ; but we do 
say that the government and the public conduct 
of rulers should be such as to be worthy of the 
imitation and emulation of the citizen— the hon- 
or of a State should be above reproach or even 
suspicion — she should be not merely honest, but 
lofty, noble, high-toned. With the highest and 
brightest examples before them, there will be in- 
dividual instances of sin among the people ; but 
when the example of their own government is 
pernicious and encourages the exercise of the 
lowest and most grovelling propensities of the 
human mind, it will inevitably, sooner or later, 
corrupt the whole mass. It matters little whe- 
ther such a course of government arises from de- 
sign or ignorance on the part of rulers : the ef- 
fect of the example is equally pernicious, as tend- 
ing to blunt the moral sense of the people and 
encouraging them to do evil — the acute among 
them through design, and the dull, through the 
mere force of example. The men for rulers 
therefore, are not the rankest partisans to be 
found — they are not only the wisest or the best, 
-jut the wisest and best men. 

There are many other occurrences of the years 
*42-3, which should probably be noticed, but we 



250 

confess we are weary of the painful task we have 
undertaken and rejoice that its completion is at 
hand. The message of Mr. Tucker to the leg- 
islature in 1844 [Sen. Jour. 11 to 33] on the eve 
of his retirement from office, shows no improve- 
ment in the affairs of the State, moral or pecu- 
niary- The labored effort of his excellency to 
show that the Planters'* Bank bonds, demand pay- 
ment of "the honor, justice and dignity of Mis- 
sissippi, " which every one knows to have been 
wholly without effect upon his party, shows that 
the poison infused by repudiating the Unionbmk 
bonds had been but too fatal in its effects. In 
vain he goes the full length with the rankest 
''radical repudiators" of the Union bonds, and 
calls upon the people to provide for that "consti- 
tutional" debt the Planters' bonds — in vain he 
urges [p. 27] such sentiments as these : 

"If lam not greatly mistaken as to the character of 
the citizens of this State, questions of dollars and cents 
have no influence on their conduct, when in contrast with 
their honor, personal or political, and the question of 
increased taxation will be met and considered with 
cheerfulness." 

Alas, he was mistaken ! "Dollars and cents" 
was the secret watch- word by which the ques- 
tion of repudiation had been carried in his own 
election, and the iron had entered into the soul 
of the masses. "Taxation" was the apparition 
upon which they had been taught to look with 
utter honor, and it was in vain to attempt to re- 
vive their courage now. "Honor, personal and 
political," had been held up as a mere name — a 
humbug, used by "fundmongers," "soulless cor- 
porations" and "bank attorneys and agents," to 
draw from the dear people the contents of their 
pockets. In short, the "constitutional" humbug 
had been overdone. The people were "off"— 
their representatives were afraid of them — dared 
scarcely levy a tax for any purpose — and Gordon 
D. Boyd, the pioneer in the rising constitutional 
war against the Planters'' Bank bonds, had been 



251 

returned to the legislature, and stood ready to 
roar out. the same old cry of "that sacred instru- 
men!" which had first given repudiation its suc- 
cess ! In vain the Executive — perhaps the most 
honest in his constitutional scruples against the 
payment of the Union Bank bonds of all the 
leading repudiators of the day — again cried out 
that the Planters bonds were within the constitu- 
tion, and ought to, and must be paid. In vain he 
talked [p. 24J of "the preservation of a high 
moral principle, without which neither society 
nor government can long exist" — in vain he ad- 
ded [p. 25.] 

••I would urge the payment of State debts on high 
arid noble principles — upon the principles of protecting 
and preserving untarnished the faith, credit and consti- 
tution of the State, and upon principles of co-mmon hon- 
esty, Right, and eternal justice/' 

The people and their representatives were too 
wide awake — had been too much enlightened to 
be caught by such chaff. They stood aloof and 
laughed at him — wanted none of the "slang- 
whang of the fundmongers" about honor, hon- 
esty, right and eternal justice. The "eternal" 
dollar was the idol they had learned to worship 
in the election of '41, and the constitution was 
the broad shield under which they had sacrificed 
to it. Why would not the same idol and the 
same pretence to save their pockets answer now 
as before-? True, Tilghman M. Tucker would 
not lead them on, under the constitutional banner, 
against the payment of the Planters^ as he did 
against the Union Bank bonds, but Gordon D. 
Boyd would. What was the difference, so that 
the pocket was saved ? They had learned too 
much of that convenient doctrine, in the election 
of '41, to unlearn it so soon. 

It is thus that these heresies always act upon 
the people, and Mr. Tucker might and ought to 
have known it when he headed the first crusade 
against the payment of the State's sealed obliga- 
tions. Now, he saw the efFect when it was too 



252 

late. Little wonder is it that, when he found 
himself thus standing alone, his earnest appeals 
disregarded as the idle wind, that he trembled 
even for the fate of the funded warrants, a large 
amount of which had, by this time, found their 
way into the hands of foreign creditors. He, 
himself, had led them on to practical repudiation 
— he, himself, had sent forth among the people 
that fearful missile of evil to which he now found 
it useless to say "so far shalt thou go, and no 
farther." In bitterness of spirit will he con- 
template the astounding progress of his first, 
fatal error. 

Neither the times nor the finances of the 
State had improved at the commencement of '44. 
" I am free to admit," says his excellency, [Sen. 
Jour. p. 17,"] "that the people of the State at 
present labor under heavy burdens." As to the 
finances, he says [p. 21] "the State treasury is 
still subject to ponderous debts." He then enu- 
merates the funded warrants, the outstanding 
warrants, the first instalment of the Planters' 
Bank bonds and "the interest which has accrued 
on said bonds for several years past." That no 
improvement had taken place in the conduct of 
the treasury department, is manifest from his new r 
edition of the eternal old story, since the acces- 
sion of Mr. McNutt, "never ending, still begin- 
ning," of the "difficulty of stating accurately 
the condition" of that department, the "derang- 
ed condition of the books of the office," and the 
equally eternal promise that every thing will be 
made straight in a very short time," &c &c. 

From this state of affairs, naturally arose the 
idea of increasing the revenue and retrenchment 
of expenses ; and his excellency, apparently not 
knowing what to do, recommends another change 
in the revenue laws and, finding "nothing exorbi- 
tant" in the way of salaries, &c, in the "Execu- 
tive or legislative departments," falls upon the 
judicial department as presenting the proper 



253 

field for cutting down and lopping off— the old 
error of his party. 

And here we conclude our remarks upon the 
administration of His Excellency, T. M. Tucker 



CHAPTER XX, 

On the tenth day of January, 1844, commenced 
the third division of the Nine Years' Rule, under 
the executive guidance of Mr. Albert G. Brown, 
who was installed on that day, and who is still 
in office, having been re-elected for a second 
term in 1S45. 

The politics of Mr. Brown are of the Tucker 
school, as opposed to the ultra or "radical" repu- 
diating doctrines of the McNutt faction ; but 
both being utterly unsound, no improvement has 
taken place in the "character and credit" of the 
State or the tone of public morals ; nor is so de- 
sirable a thing to be looked for, so long as the 
government remains unpuiged of that peculiar rot- 
tenness, a disregard of the obligation of contracts 

As the administration of Mr. Tucker stands 
condemned before the world, as the era of the 
practical repudiation of the public debt, so does 
that of Mr. Brown, as the epoch of the practical 
repudiation of the debts of private individuals 
to a certain class of creditors ; and both may be 
yet regretted, in unavailing bitterness, as periods 
;n which the executive and legislative branches 
of the government rode rough shod over the ju- 
diciary, and established the destructive doctrine 
that the people may, and ought to, seize upon 
questions of law, snatch them from the courts , 
and decide them at the ballot box ! 

Unfortunately, this is not the extent of the 
progress made by the demon of misrule during 
the administrations of which we now write 
The last three years have witnessed the attempts 
of the press of the "Democratic Rule," led on 
by the chief organ of the government at ihe 
x 



254 

capital, to bring the judiciary into contempt with 
the people — to take legal questions from the very 
hands of the courts, decide them beforehand and 
thus give the cue for their decision at the polls- 
— to force party politics into the elections of the 
judges, and to advocate the election of judicial 
candidates pledged to a certain construction oj 
certain laws ! 

This pernicious interference with the judicia- 
ry was commenced by the Mississippian, the 
"'State paper" and leading organ of the Demo- 
cratic Rule, in 1S45, by pandering to the interests 
01 bank debtors, in declaring that the amend- 
ments to the Briscoe Bill of '43, which provi- 
ded for the appointment of trustees to collect the 
debts and apply them to the demands against 
banks, so far as they might go, should be uncon- 
ditionally repealed; leaving the debtors free from 
any obligation to pay, and the creditors to lose 
their money! The doctrine partially forced its 
•way into the whig party, but after a very sharp 
contest, that party purged itself of 'the heresy 
by utterly defeating and prostrating, in the No- 
vember election of that year, its own candidates 
who had advocated the doctrine. This contest, 
though local, elicited much discussion and had a 
vast influence over the whole State, insomuch 
that two several attempts to sustain the doctrine 
in the legislature of 1846, signally failed, even 
with the democratic party, though it was forced 
through on a third attempt, near the close of the 
session — of which, more in its place. 

The Mississippian ', with the clique of partisans 
which support it, has continued, in the interim, 
to advocate and endeavor to force down the throats 
of the democratic party, this outrageous disgrace 
to the State and the age, and, in its reckless 
course, has attacked not only the judicial depart- 
ment of the government, as "an anti-republican 
feature." thereof, but the judicial office, the judi- 
cial opinions of the courts, and the judges them- 



.'OS. 

violence at the present day — a serious charge 
having been recently made by it against the integ- 
rity of the Chief Justice; the accusation being 
that he took up one of the bank-debtor cases pre- 
maturely, out of its place on the docket, for the 

ose o^ having his decision operate in fa 
of his re-election' 

This interference with the business of the j ;. 
ciary by taking a case out ot its hands and deci- 
.; it by this august party newspaper, and its 
subsequent attack upon the judicial office and. 
station, with the evident design of bringing it into 
espect if not contempt with the people, to 
which we first alluded, are severally to be found 
in the columns of that paper, of the 11th and 
25th of June 1S45. The first relates to a motion 
to appoint a receiver for the Union Bank, set foi 
hearing before the chancellor, on Thursday, the 
12th of June 1S45, which this new legal tribu- 
nal, the "State paper" took up the verv day be- 
fore, and, after stating that it **has heard with 
nse that the motion will be sustained," pro- 
reeded to argue against the anticipated decision! 
The second enormity above mentioned is in 
the words subjoined; the italics being our's, and 
"ia!l capitals being the parts emphasized by 
the original writers of the article. 

dcb not mine Anointed.— The editor c: 
tiron is horrified at the temerity we displayed in cx- 
: jut opinions as to a proposed Union Ban I 
It is really laughable to witness such gross affee- 
. . .4 merer; an — poor, frail, 'weak, erring man. i 
ihe bench, named judge, and forthwith his c : 
pinions are held sacred. For our part, we bole 
genus in equal respect; and we especially hold it 
to be ■ f an independent press to discus* 

uiges. Tbe federal judiciary is the 
• can feature of the government. So is . 

of most of the state?. In Mississippi, wl 
we have an elective judiciary, we stand some :na: 
pinisn what it ought to be— 7m lav 
ini Those opposed to the march of demot 
principles^ cling to the judges, endeavoring to inspire 

This is 



256 

humbuggery. And here we take occasion to say, thai 
it is supremely ridiculous to admit that the people are 
capable of choosing their judges, and, at the same time, 
deny them the utmost freedom in canvassing the opinion? 
of candidates for judicial slatians. Such statements may 
amaze our neighbor- but we tell him this is a part of the 
philosophy of that progressive democracy which he so 
much dislikes. 

This was the character of the commencement 
of the tear upon the judiciary which may be said 
to have festered to a head in the last year of the 
last administration of Governor Brown. That 
disgraceful war has been continued until all the 
evils at first predicted of the system of electing 
judges, to which the course of things since — to 
the honor of the people, be it spoken— has appear- 
ed to give a flat denial, seem, at last, to be verifi- 
ed! The presses of these ultra destructives, 
the McNutt faction of the "Democratic Rule," 
with the "State Paper" at their head, are now 
making every effort to array, as a class, to con- 
trol the elections of the judges, debtors whose 
own liabilities are to be decided upon by pledged 
judicial candidates! Let the reader think of 
it: debt, money, by the million, arrayed against 
fearless and independent judges, and in favor of 
candidates for the bench, fledged, by a previous- 
ly expressed opinion, to release from their debts 
those debtors who are to support them at the polish 

This is no fancy sketch. It is the precise 
state of the present contest as to the election of 
a judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals. 
A solemn decision of the present Chief Justice 
of that Court, delivered from the bench, is seized 
upon by the leading press of the "Democratic 
Rule," and it is publicly proclaiming that that 
decision does not suit the people, who must, and 
will, elect a judge who will reverse the decision 
and who, of course, must be pledged to do so be- 
forehand, to obtain their support ! Who, then, 
under this spurious "Democracy" are, in fact, the 
judges? Not those who pass for such, take the 
path of office and actually sit upon the bench and 



de causes, but the people, whose causes they 
decide ! Does not every sane man see that this 
is utter mummery? that the, so to be called, 
judges are to be but mere popular puppets} that 
the judiciary is to be such but in name? that the 
people are, in truih, to be the judges themselves, 
and in their own cases? that all this leads directly 
to — nay, is, in very fact — disorganization, cor- 
ruption, utter rottenness? 

And the excuse offered for all this unblushing- 
usurpation of the judicial power by "the Rule,'" 
(for the people, Heaven save the mark!) is that 
this decision is to the effect that certain bank 
debtors shall pay theirdebts, as other debtors are 
compelled to do, and that, in order to exterminate 
tne banks (already utterly prostrate and power- 
less) it is necessary to release their debtors, at 
the expense of their creditors! The same iden- 
tical excuse offered by the "State Paper" in 1840 
for taking up a motion pending before the chan- 
cellor and deciding it the very day before that set 
for its hearing by the court — viz: that a bank was 
in the case! an excuse too, for speaking contempt- 
uously of the courts and appealing to the people 
to sustain a mere party at such a sacrifice of re- 
spect for that most important and indispensable 
branch of a free government, the judiciary. 
The banks were in fact, demolished by the oper- 
ation of the act of ? 43. None of them sought 
to do more than wind up their affairs. No one. 
would have taken their bills had they attempted 
to issue any, and the attempt of the clique of 
politicians who seek to manage the affairs of 
the State, to prolong and eke out the old prejudice 
against those institutions in 1845 was but a hypo- 
t : itical effort on the part of numbers of them to 
avoid paying their own debts and swell the ranks 

•the Rule" by enlisting as partisans other 

bank debtors by means of the bounty of a release 

from their debts. The old cry of "down with 

banks" was so potent that it intimidated 

x 2 



25€ 

those who would have explained the tree state 
of the question from doing so, notwithstanding 
the banks icere down, and utterly powerless to do 
either good or evil. 

But while this old cry cf "down with the 
banks" was thus revived and rung out so loudly. 
those who used it were the friends, in fact, ana 
not the enemies of the banks. The self styled 
•'Democracy," or rather the clique who have 
managed it for nine years, have twice changed 
sides on this bank question! When the United 
States Bank was to be put down, it was the 
progenitor, protector and firm friend of State 
banks in Mississippi — it filled the State with the 
most worthless, ill managed concerns, in the 
shape of banks, that ever disgraced the country 
Treasury pap was the reward for this; out anon 
a new order was given, and the Rule was the 
enemy of all banks, indiscriminately, great and 
small, good, bad and indifferent! It attacked alt 
cank officers, presidents, cashiers, directors, clerks 
agents, and even the attorneys who appeared for 
banks in the courts, as utterly corrupt — it de- 
nounced them as aristocrats, rag-barons, shavers, 
cut-throats, living on the fat of the land, upoa 
money borrowed from those "soulless, swindling 
corporations" and passed off upon the poor people . 
The money was then below par, and every igno- 
rant, uninformed citizen who had a dollar of it 
was, of course, caught easily in this trap. Then 
came another change — the debtors to these banks 
were found to be a more numerous class than 
had been imagined — party capital was to be marit 
out of taking sides with and advocating the in- 
terests of these same "aristocrats, rag barons, 
shavers, cut throats, §tc. t " amft, u pre$to — change n ~ 
was the word with "the Rule," which is now 
* n the side of the banks again, busily engaged in 
concocting schemes for wiping out the bank debts 
of the very men who l 'borrow- ed money from 
the banks by discounting their own notes and 



: worthless rags upon the poo. 
nocent people!" It appears to be fully establish- 
ed, therefore, that the whole aim and object of 
same "Democratic Rule" is to keep itself in 
power, no matter by what means. "Perish char- 
acter, perish credit, perish fame, perish State 
pride and State honor, perish the public morals, 
perish patriotism, perish the constitution, perish 
judicial power and judicial independence, perish, 
in fine, every barrier set up by the sages of the 
revolution around the temple of liberty, so that 
the Rule, maintains a party ascendency," seems 
to be the piratical motto at least of those men 
who are now in the very act of thus undermin- 
ing the judiciary, under the hypocritical cry of 
"down with the banks" (which are already dead.) 

Whether it would or would not be agreeable 
to his present excellency to see this attempt suc- 
, we do not know, nor is it important t( 
inquire, since it is certain that he has not now 
sufficient influence with his party to check the 
rank growth of that deathly upas tree planted 
by the arch Repudiator upon the ruins of the 
State's honor, the branches of which have con- 
tinued to grow with a ranker and ranker luxuri- 
ance, until they have shut out the moral sunlight 
leaven, and nothing seems to flourish in their 
dark, melancholy shade, but weeds that impreg- 
nate the social atmosphere with moral pestilence 

In some things, the election of Mr. Tuckei 
be said to have been an amelioration of af- 
fairs as they existed under the McNutt dynasty, 
and so may the election of Mr. Brown he said tc 
have been another short step towards a better 
-tate of things; but these were in minor matters : 
the poison had been administered, and its contam- 
ion and corruption have continued to spread 
and wide; proving to these semi statesmen 
that the progress of evil is ever onward, despite 
all attempts to prescribe boundaries to its opera- 
nts the as laid to the roo oi 



260 

and that no superstructure of morality can be rear- 
ed upon an immoral and corrupting foundation. 

In the Inaugural Address of Mr. Brown, deliv- 
ered on his installation in 1844 [Sen. Jour. 157,] 
is to be found the same old cry of "a sacred re- 
gard for the constitution," but not in the same 
old words. By way of variety, his excellency 
changes the worn out expression of "that sacred 
instrument" into the equally original one of "the 
palladium of our liberties," for which, as we are 
heartily sick of the hypocrisy hidden under the 
former, we could find it in our heart to thank him. 

Under this change of phraseology, however, 
we discover the same old disposition to establish 
a reputation for pure patriotism, and thereby keep 
up party ascendency, by a revamped edition of 
stale truisms which nobody doubts or ever pre- 
tended to doubt; and we must bitterly lament 
that, under this shining panoply, his excellency, 
in fact, attacks the "palladium of our liberties" 
in a vital part — its protection of the morals of 
the people — with as deceitful or as ignorant a 
fury as his most illustrious predecessors. 

Such was the handiwork of His Excellency 
when he declared [p. 159,] against making "one 
acknowledged wrong," as he calls borrowing the 
money on the Union Bank bonds, "the pretext 
for committing a still more grievous wrong," by 
which he means paying the borrowed money 
back ! Such also was the effect of his "effort" 
[p. 165,] to "roll back the tide of obloquy," 
which he says was hurled against the State in 
consequence (not of her repudiating her debts, 
oh, no, but) of her deciding "in her sovereign 
capacity," that it was not her debt at all ! 

In her "sovereign capacity" forsooth ! And 
where, we would ask him, as a statesman and 
lawyer, where was her judiciary , that it was ne- 
cessary for the "people" to decide whether a debt 
claimed of them was a debt due or not ? Why, 
answers His Excellency : 



261 

"She has claimed for herself the right— a right which 
she will never surrender— to construe her own funda- 
mental laic and to decide whether debts have been im- 
posed on her in violation of that law." 

Indeed! but how construe it ? In the mode 
pointed out in "that palladium of our liberties,'* 
itself — which is by the judiciary? Not at all. 
Here is the answer of His Excellency in his owl 
words, and our italics : 

11 The people have decided it at the ballot box; and, 
having assumed their position, in full view of all the 
consequences which it can possibly involve, they art 
prepared to maintain it with a firmness which becomes 
a free people, conscious of the rectiiude of their own 
conduct — unawed by denunciation at home or abroad, 
and unseduced by the eloquence of men sent hither to 
persuade them to pay debts they do not owe!" 

Most magnincient bombast! Most glorious 
sacrifice of principle to party ? Most manly sa- 
crifice of the judicial power to the mob ! Most 
hypocritical support of the constitution ! Most 
defying and daring morality of a new school I 
Most courageous insult to the defrauded bond- 
holders ! Most honorable estimate of the people 
of the State, themselves, who are supposed so 
debased as not to have a man among them to ad- 
vocate the payment of the bonds, but have stran- 
gers sent hither to persuade them to pay ! 

Why, one would say His Excellency himself, 
had been just "sent hither," and did not know 
the character of the people among whom he had 
been reared and educated, before he laid down 
his whigism, forgot his famous eulogy on Henry 
Clay, turned "democrat" and thereby mounted 
the political ladder, which carried him to the leg- 
islature in 1838, thence to Congress, thence to 
the bench of the Circuit court, thence into the 
Executive chair of the State, as the represent- 
ative of that same u Democratic Rule" which 
now, in 1847, has tendered him the distinguished 
honor of an attempt to place him on the bencn 
of the High Court, a pledged judge* — a result 

* In the M State paper" of the 14th May, 1847, there is a peti- 
to governor Brown to become a candidate for Judge of thf 



262 

bf that system of policy which he has lent his 
aid to fasten upon the State, as well by his course 
against the payment of the Union Bank bonds as 
by his appro val of the outrageous act of 1846 to 
release bank debtors from their debts. 

Falling into the same mistake as his immediate 
predecessor, that men can be honorable by halves, 
His Excellency [Sen. Jour. 166,] follows up his 
support of the first act of repudiation, thus; 

"While we proclaim to the world our unalterable de- 
termination never to submit to taxation to pay one cent 
of this unjust demand, let us also proclaimjustice to 
our honest creditors. Wherever there exists a debt 
against the State, contracted in guod faith and with a 
proper regard to the constitution, it must be discharged 
to the last mill. Of this character do I regard the bonds 
issued on account of the Planters* Bank, and come what 
may, the State can never shrink from the payment of 
mem. Let prompt and efficient action be taken for their 
settlement. A speedy liquidation of them will afford 
what every good citizen is anxious to see, a fitting op- 
portunity to manifest to the world thai, in rejecting the 
Union Bank bonds, we are actuated by no mean or sor- 
did principle of dollars and ce?its, but by a more elevated 
impulse — thai of adhering faithfully to our written con- 
stitution." 

Why was a fitting opportunity required to man- 
ifest that, in rejecting the Union Bank bonds, the 
people were actuated by "no mean or sordid 
principle of dollars and cents r" If so certainly 
right, why so anxious to manifest that it was 
£0 ? Right is eternal, and stands upon a basis so 
firm that it cannot be shaken ; and from that proud 
position it proclaims itself in unmistakable lan- 
guage to all the world. It sustains itself without 
"an effort." 

High Court of Errors and Appeals, the closing clause of which is 
as follows : " The people have stood by you in ail your trials — 
*hey now ask you to stand by them." The only part of •* the 
people'' who have stood by governor Brown are those constitut- 
ing a political party — it is now asked that he will stand by the 
same party in their war against the present Chief Justice for 
having recently made a judicial decision, from the bench, the 
effect of which is to compel certain bank debtors, of which — and 
let it be proclaimed aloud — this upright judge is himself one, to 
pay their debts. This is the true interpretation of the movement. 
Among the names of the petitioners, we do not recognize that of 
a. single lawyer, nor do we know one who is not a democrat. It is 
a political party movement, E*. 



As we have said in relation to-Mr. Tucker V 
advocacy of paying the Planters' Bank bonds, 
so was it with Mr. Brown's — "dollars and cents" 
had been, however insidiously and artfully, up- 
pealed to, and every shrewd observer knows 
that, notwithstanding the wild hurrahs for "the 
constitution," the consideration of dollars and 
cents, alone, controlled the result of the election 
of T. M. Tucker over Judge Shattuck in 1841, 
and established the doctrine of Repudiation ; in 
other words, that "the people" kicked the con- 
stitutional guardians and expounders of "the pal- 
ladium of our liberties" out of their way and de- 
cided themselves "at the ballot box" that they 
would not pay the debt. 

Of these "people," Mr. Brown [p. 158] speaks 
the truth when he says that "token correctly ad- 
vised" they "will always do right;" but they 
had been advised by Mr. McNutt in his messages 
of the terrible effects of taxation, when he should 
have encouraged them to be honest, at whatever 
sacrifice of money ; and the claim on their sympa- 
thies of the "almighty dollar" had been rung in 
their ears by stump candidates through two elec- 
tions, since. "But," continues His Excellency, 
"from a great variety of causes, peculiar to pop- 
ular government, there is danger, that majorities 
will sometimes be led into excesses." So far 
into these excesses, had his predecessors of "the 
Rule" already led the majority of the people of 
Mississippi, that his appeal to them to do justice, 
at least in one instance, like Mr. Tucker's, fell 
still-born to the earth, where it yet lies. True, 
the legislature of 1844 went so far as to pass an 
act [acts of 1844, ch. 26,] "to place the Planters' 
Bank of the State of Mississippi and the Missis- 
sippi Rail Road Company in liquidation, for th^ 
payment of the State bonds issued on account 
• f the Planters' bank," but this is as far as the Rule 
have gone or probably will go, while, on the other 
hand, the ''radical" repudiators are still "advis- 



264 

ing the people" that those bonds have no more 
claim to be paid than the Union Bank bonds, and 
Mr. Brown, himself, for adhering to his opinion 
that the Planters' Bank bonds ought to be prompt- 
ly provided for and paid by the State, because it 
was well known the assets of the Planters' and 
Rail Road Banks would never pay the debt, and 
saying so in his message in 1846, has been most 
unsparingly denounced by that powerful faction 
of his party to which he is opposed, and which , 
through its chief press, at the capital, had an- 
nounced, so early as the spring of 1845 that the 
tax collectors were settling with the Auditor and 
there would certainly be a large surplus of gold 
and silver in the treasury, &c, but that all of said 
tax collectors reported that the people felt their 
taxes to be a heavy burthen, and forthwith pro- 
posed a reduction of the rates, as though abso- 
lutely fearful some of the State's debts might be 
paid ! 

Thus it is that the disciples of a false morali- 
ty are taught, when too late, how much easier it 
is to set the ball of evil rolling than to stop its 
course afterwards — how infinitely more easy it 
is to pull down than to build up — to demolish 
approved systems of morality and honor than to 
construct new ones. 

Among the laws passed "to save the people 
from ruin" in 1844, may be enumerated chapter 
9, of the published acts, which shortens the time 
within which suits may be brought, and chapter 
45, which authorizes the sale of judgments for 
the costs due upon them. Among the provisions 
of the former is one compelling suits to recover 
lands generally to be brought within seven years : 
another, establishing title to lands on ten years' 
possession, &c, &c. The act authorizing the 
sale of judgments for costs was intended, as ex- 
pressed by its terms, to operate on all judgments, 
then rendered, or to be rendered on which an ex- 
ecution is returned nulla hona 7 2ind "the sheriff's 



265 

and clerk >nd commissions, and all other 

costs and fees thereon have not been paid by the 
plaintiff or plaintiffs" to be sold at public auction 
by the sheriff. 

We might devote some space to comments up- 
on these acts, respectively, had we time; but we 
imagine there is a great deal which will suggest 
itself to the mind of the reader without giving 
him many hints. On the passage of the latter in 
the Senate, it has been stated to us that a distin- 
guished member of that body, of the persuasion 
of "the Rule," said that its effect would be to 
wipe out old judgments, &c, and therefore he was 
in favor of it, and gave as a reason that he had then 
recently purchased a negro, and afterwards dis- 
covered there was one of these old judgments 
which would bind the property ; upon discover- 
ing which, he said, he pledged his word to his 
fellow Senators that it was as much as he could 
do to run the negro, before the execution came, 
sure enough ! Of course, the Senate could do 
no less than pass the act to wipe out y &c, after 
this illustration of the effect of "old judgments 
and things," and, of course, the people, with 
such a high toned morality ringing in their ears 
from the high places of the land, would be ex- 
tremely likely to be improved. 

One mode in which this law was to wipe out 
old affairs may be gathered from the fourth sec- 
tion, which provides that when the defendants, 
themselves, are the purchasers of the judgments, 
"the sale and assignment by the sheriff," to them, 
"shall operate as a complete satisfaction and ex- 
tinguishment of said judgment." Whether this 
was particularly advantageous to the officers, to 
secure whose fees the law is said, by its own pre- 
amble, to be enacted, we leave to the reader to 
judge. To us it appears more particularly ad- 
vantageous to the "defendant'' or judgment debt- 
or hims 



way of "retrenchment," the salary of 
Chancellor who had more labor to perform than 
any other officer of the government in any de- 
partment, was reduced [Acts of '44, ch. 11,] to 
a sum which drove one of the best Chancellors 
in the Union, and one, of whose opinions the 
State of Mississippi may ever be proud, from the 
bench, to provide for his family by practice at 
the bar — an act for which the sort of general re- 
duction of salaries and fees made by the same 
law, and chapter 12, forms no excuse. The, 
then Chancellor, Buckner, had conducted 
court with credit to himself and the State through 
the most troublous period Mississippi had ever 
seen. — The tribunal in which he presided was an 
adamantine rock, against which the surges of im- 
morality and disorganization engendered by the 
times, beat and roamed in impotent fury, while it 
compelled the secret respect of citizen and for- 
eigner, debtor and creditor, alike, whatsoever 
might have been said cf it with a view to break 
it down by taking decisions from before it, or to 
extripate it and scatter its business among the 
Circuit Courts^ to do which there has been i 
steady and persevering effort made by u the Rule." 

Chapter 201, of the acts of '44, once more 
appeals to Congress to reduce the fees of the of- 
ficers of the United States Courts. And in this 
connexion it may be appropriate to mention that 
we find by the Senate Journal [p. 188,] Mr, Ives 
gave notice that he would introduce a bill (not 
io abolish the United States Courts in Mississip- 
pi) but to "tax lawyers who practice law in the 
United States Courts!" 

Among these measures for saving money and 
increasing the revenue, it seems a little extrava- 
gant in the legislature to have placed by the ap- 
propriation act [Acts, ch. 44,] $2000 at the dis- 
posal of the executive to pay for the apprehen- 
sion of Graves, the absconded treasurer, who 
was said to be living; at his ease and undisguised in 



th Carolina, and who had, in his pamphlet 
red to come back if they would only pass an 
act to protect him from personal violence By 
act $1500 was appropriated in the same 
:ier to be applied to the apprehension of 
Horace Pagaud, another worthy hanger-on of 
Rule," who finding State warrants rathe; 
better than no currency at all, and in the absence 
he "constitutional 1 ' currency promised by 
; Rule," had set in for making considerable 
quantities of the said warrants "on his own hook, 1 
without any warrant for so doing. 

As usual, the revenue laws were again chang- 
ed "reduced into one, 15 which retained some 
( f the most objectionable features of the former 
laws, and, above all, re-enacted the admirable 
clause which prescribes the form of a tax collec- 
tor's deed and makes it evidence that the grantor 
has done his duty in all things relating to the 
land conveyed, to the very letter. 

As a measure of extraordinary precaution, the 
legislature, doubtless being in fear that some of 
debts of the State declared "unconstitution- 
al the ballot-box, might receive a different 
construction by the judiciary, and therefore be paid 
out of the (empty) treasury, solemnly enacted 
[chapter 21.] 
• : That hereafter, no judgment or decree of any cour: 
equity having jurisdiction of .suits against the 
. shall be paid by warrants on the Treasurer, or 
rwisc, without an appropriation by law, any former 
law or u^age to the contrary notwithstanding. 5 ' 

The Journals of 1844 seem to reveal that I\Ii 
Brown was, at least, not quite so fond of using 
the veto power as his predecessors, Messrs Mc- 
Nutt and Tucker. We find but one veto mes- 
s in that year [Sen. Jour. 555] and this re- 
lates to a bill to amend the charter of Jefferson 
College His Excellency states his principal 
ction to signing the bill to be that it "admits. 
: y implication, that the legislature has not the 
- to repeal or amend the charter of this Collect 



268 

without the consent of the Trustees. "This," 
continues His Excellency, "is a doctrine which 
I can never sanction by any official act of mine. 
If the legislature believe the charter defective, 
they may amend it, and if they think it too fa- 
tally defective to admit of amendment, they may 
repeal it, and substitute such other lav: as, in their 
opinion, will promote the interests of the insti- 
tution, irrespective of the will of the Trustees- 
or any one else !' ? 

This is the ultra charter-repealing doctrine of 
the "progressives" of the day, who regard con- 
tracts as things to be broken at will by the hand 
of power. The remaining objection urged by 
the veto message is that even the Governor has 
but six days to approve or return a bill, while 
the College might keep it six years, refusing to 
accept it, and it would be bo law. It concludes 
thus : "I am not yet prepared to admit, by any 
act of mine, that these corporations are more 
powerful in making laws than the whole law- 
making power of the State combined t*' 

That the "power of the State combined'* 
could furnish a weaker affair than this, in the 
way of an argument, is at least quite problem- 
atical, We beiievethe College survived it. 



CHAPTER XXI. 

The message of governor Brown to the Legis- 
lature at the opening of the session of 1846 is, 
taken as a whole, a better and more statesmanlike 
paper than any gubernatorial production of the 
period to which these notes relate. One reason 
for this is, probably, that it is not deformed by 
any of the anti Union Bank bond arguments, if 
arguments they may be called, which, to the dis- 
grace of the State and the Democratic Rule, dis- 
figure the others. It is perspicuously divided into 
heads, and except toward the conclusion, there 
is very little mingling of distinct subjects. There 
are however some serious objections to it. 



in the comm int, among the congratuia 

is usua. on such occasions, such as the genera: 
prosperity, health, kc. kc, we find [Sen. Jour 
tor 1846, p. 12,] the following sentence : 

11 Industry and economy, united with a sound 
and a i'ruitl'nl soil, have rewarded the toils of Ike hus- 
bandman with a fair income." 

In his Inaugural Address, it is intimated 
that the " specie currency," so long promised, is 
the currency of the State; all of which would be 
an excellent illustration of the benefits of the 
anti-bank policy and practice of that party which 
has done its utmost to ruin the currency of the 
whole country, if it were true that the circulating 
medium in Mississippi was either specie, or oth- 
erwise " sound," and provided that the money 
pressure had been relieved, and that the credit of. 
the State or of the citizens had been improved. 
Unfortunately, however, for the currency doctors, 
v r currency tinkers, there is not, nor has there 

q, since the great monetary revulsion of 1837 
first burst upon the country, any entire or perma- 
relief from its effects experienced in the 
State. On the contrary, the pressure has con- 
tinued in a most unparalleled degree ever since, 
and still exists. 

As to the currency of the State having proved 
the realization of the "Cuba" dreams of Mr. R 
J. Walker, it is an utter fallacy; and, so far as 
pecuniary affairs in Mississippi, as they, in truth 
and in fact,. exist and have existed for nine years. 
illustrate the policy of the ultra Democratic or 
Locofoco party, that policy is shown to be one of 
the most egregious failures and humbugs ever 
entertained or supported by sane men. That, in 
^on to the uninterrupted continuance of the 
money pressure which has borne terribly upon 
l oth the State government and the people, the 
character and credit of both are, not only abroad, 
a t a lower ebb than that of any State- 
in the Union, is as indisnutable a*- 1 



270 

notorious. To say so plainly, in print, may be 
regarded by many as at least ungracious in a citi- 
zen ; but " facts are stubborn things," and it is 
with those (and for the real and true benefit of 
the people) that, alone, we deal. The proof of 
our assertions is with every observant man in the 
State, and that this unpropitious condition of 
things rs the effect of Democratic Rule, may be 
easily ascertained by any one not too much blinded 
by party prejudice to see things in their true light. 
The principle of Repudiation, declared and ad- 
vocated by the State in her sovereign capacity > 
is at the bottom of the whole difficulty; not on It 
from its pernicious encouragement to the Legis- 
lature to follow it up by the " Briscoe Bill," in 
aid of the effect upon the people, individually, oi 
an example set by the State to be followed by 
them in their private transactions, but as giving 
a bad name to both State and people with their 
fellow-citizens of other States. The press of the 
party which has done these deeds and certain 
demagogues on the stump, at home, or even in 
Congress, may swagger as they will, about the 
untarnished honor of the State, but >t will not 
alter the fact. The simple circumstance so much 
talked of when certain mercantile houses abroad 
first ventured upon again crediting Mississippi 
merchants, after the crisis, of the question "Are 
you a Repudiator ?" being regularly put, and s 
reply in the negative insisted upon as a sine qutt 
non to trusting the persons questioned, is of itself 
a refutation of all such blustering as that to which 
we have alluded, so far as the character of the 
people abroad is concerned; while it is equally 
notorious that her own citizens having money to 
invest would seek some other field for lending it. 
Credit cannot exist without confidence, and to 
such an extent has confidence been destroyed by 
the acts of the legislature and their effects upon 
the people, that it is one of the most difficult 
matters to obtain any kind of security. These 



271 

ml tacts well known and indisputable Sorm 
shallow reasoners pretend to think the difficulty — 
nay, almost the impossibility of obtaining per- 
sonal security worth having, a great benefit, and 
the Rule seem disposed, from certain intimations 
in their leading press at the capital, to take up the 
novel doctrine of one of their members, Mr. J. J- 
McCaughan, of abolishing all laws for the collec- 
tion of security debts. This is however but the 
effect of the impracticability of obtaining secu- 
rity — a desperate attempt to hide the lamentable 
effect of their own doings. He who wishes to 
understand the true state of the question may in- 
form himself by simply inquiring why it is that 
the old systems of doing business will not answer 
as well in Mississippi as elsewhere — why it is that 
confidence has not been restored within her limits 
as in other States — why, in pecuniary affairs, 
neighbor is afraid of neighbor, father of son, son 
of father, and brother of brother ? The answer 
must be that, under the example of the State, 
the effect of the laws she has enacted to release 
the debtor from the payment of his obligations, 
and the manifold instances of bad faith these have 
engendered, confidence has been so utterly and 
unprecedentedly prostrated in Mississippi that 
there is no hope of reviving it until the people 
arise in their might and cut up, root and branch, 
all those causes which have produced this sad 
effect— wipe out every disgraceful law and reso- 
lution from the statute book, recur to high toned 
principle, and begin again on the old, well tried 
and never failing plan. 

Such a result, it must be confessed, is little to 
be hoped for, so long as a strong political party 
is arrayed on the side of Wrong, and seizes upon 
every matter which furnishes an appeal to the 
pockets of the people in order to keep itself in 
power, under the guidance of a small clique who 
have done more to injure the reputation of the 
State and of her people individually, by their 



272 

political course, than any ten thousand individual 
in their private capacity, by the most flagitious 
course of conduct in private life, could effect in 
a score of years, if bent upon her ruin and their 
own. The most reasonable hopes of a restora- 
tion of her "character and credit" and the old, 
high-toned honor which so particularly marked 
her in her better days, are not founded upon the 
anticipated overthrow of that party, as a party, 
but in the belief that it will purge itself of its 
present leaders and managers, and, choosing nev 
men, retain to itself the honor and merit of un- 
doing the evil that has been done, If that party 
is wise, it will do so — if not, sooner or later, it 
will be utterly crushed ; for the contest is fast 
losing the character of a mere warfare between 
parties divided on questions of national policy, 
and is assuming the character of an encounter 
between Right and Wrong, as right and wrong 
are understood by men's consciences ; and the 
final lesult of such a contest is as plain to the ob- 
servant and really acute as the fact that day suc- 
ceeds night. Among the masses of the people, 
the re-action of a dereliction from principle is 
already felt and is working deeply, and here we 
take occasion to say, that the idea, founded upon 
the experience of the last nine years, that the 
people of Mississippi at large, or the masses of 
the dominant party itself, are a bad material 
out of which to form one of the best and most 
honorable communities on earth, is an utter fal- 
lacy Those who have mingled with the people 
of the State, ate and drank with them, and slept 
in their cabins, know that they possess the requi- 
sites for all that is good and estimable and hono- 
rable among men — that the "public opinion" they 
have been made to express is manufactured jo* 
them by demagogues — that, in the language of 
governor Brown, quoted in the preceding chapter, 
"when correctly advised," they "will always dc 
right'- — but that whether designedly or ign&- 



273 

rantiy, those in whom the majority have had 
confidence, under the empty pretence of preserv- 
ing the doctrines of democracy, have "advised'' 
them to a course which the truly wise and good, 
every where, without regard to party, consider 
utterly ruinous. 

As we have directly denied the assertion of 
his Excellency that the currency of the State 
either has been or now is a "sound" or "specie" 
currency, we shall state what that currency has 
been and now is, and we appeal to the people 
themselves in various parts of the State as to its 
truth. The currency of the whole Northern 
section of the State has been, since the prostra- 
tion of the Mississippi banks, and now is, the 
bills of the Tennessee banks — that of the South 
Eastern and Eastern portions has been, and stili 
is, the bills of the Alabama banks — that of the 
South Western division, the bills of the Louisi- 
ana banks. The cential portion of the State, 
within a circumscribed distance around the capi- 
tal, where the office holders and hangers-on of 
the government receive their salaries, has been 
more nearly a specie currency than any other 
portion, but even that has been mixed with all 
of the above named circulation of neighboring 
banks, and perhaps never, since the general crash 
of the banks of the State, has specie constituted 
so small a portion of the currency as since the 
beginning of this present year of 1847. As to 
the Northern part of the State, the taxes even, 
notwithstanding the legislative prohibition, have 
been, in many counties, constantly paid in Mem- 
phis money, the tax collectors finding they must 
take that or get nothing, and, having full confi- 
dence in those banks, took the risk of receiving 
it upon themselves and called at Memphis and 
drew the specie for the bills on their way to 
Jackson to settle with the Auditor. This has 
oeen the common course of that business for 
years, and it must be known to every one that 



274 

there is not specie in the State, and has not been for 
years, sufficient to supply a circulating medium 
for a tenth part of it. 

Upon such a condition of affairs was it that 
Gov. Brown, in his principal message in 1846, 
[Sen. Jour. 34,] recommended "an amendment 
to the constitution, prohibiting the establishment 
of banks in this State," which, having been ta- 
ken in charge by Mr. Parmenas Briscoe, is now 
before the people as one of the great measures 
c f "the Rule" in the coming elections. 

That it is an impossibility to establish banks 
in Mississippi with any prospect of their being 
either useful or properly conducted, no one will 
deny, nor can any judicious well wisher of the 
State wish to see such institutions chartered at 
such a time as this. Yet the ultra measure of 
prohibiting them by a constitutional provision is 
the mere party claptrap of a set of desperate 
politicians intended to cover, by a sort of seem- 
ing fanaticism, the egregious blunders they have 
made in legislation, of which the present lament- 
able times are a mere effect. As they do not, 
we think it incumbent on us to tell the whole 
truth about the matter, and here it is — $J* The 
immorality in all pecuniary affairs — the general 
disregard of the obligations of contracts, and the 
general fever for speculating with fiduciary funds, 
caused and engendered by the nine years sway 
( f "the Democratic Rule" have rendered it a 
faint and desolate hope that any public moneyed 
institution could find bona fide subscribers for its 
stock, either abroad or at home, or that it would 
be honestly managed if the capital could be ob- 
tained ! This is startling, but it is one of those 
"stubborn facts" which it is requisite the people 
should know ; and, while it is a matter of little 
importance whether or not the amendment to the 
constitution is carried, inasmuch as there will 
certainly be no banks in either ^vent, it is right 
that this movement of political partisans, bank 



'7 

:rs 3nd a Briscoe bill' 7 men, who woul \ 
.nguage of his excellency, u makc this endu- 
ring record of hostility" to banks (to some of 
which institutions now just overthrown, most of 
these men are indebted) should be thoroughly 
known by the people for precisely what it is, in 
its nakedness, to wit: a desperate attempt to 
cover, by seeming ultraism, this disreputable 
state of things which this "Rule" has brought 
about. The very necessity — if there were any 
— for so strange a thing as a constitional pro- 
hibition against moneyed corporations, when suf- 
ficient confidence and credit have, in most parts 
of the Union, been restored, and banks are conse- 
quently going on with the same benefits and as 
little detriment as ever to the community, while 
Mississippi is herself, in very fact, dependent 
upon them for her own circulating medium, 
would be a commentary upon her situation in no 
wise creditable to her. As to the practical re- 
sult, however, such a clause in the constitution 
would, as we have said, make no difference, and 
it being, therefore, of no importance whether the 
amendment be made or not, it can be of little use 
to discuss the subject with a view of deciding 
whether it should be voted for or not. The bank 
debtors who would show their patriotism by 
tinkering the constitution now, would probably 
be ready to tinker it again if they could get an- 
other chance to speculate, by creating more banks, 
borrowing from them, and disgracing the State 
by again passing a law to release themselves 
With an amendment at every session of the leg- 
islature, the constitution has little more stability 
than a statute, at all events, and such seems to 
be the order of things at present. 

In this connexion we may mention that one 
of the best recommendations ever made by 
Gov. Brown is to be found in the message before 
us, p. 37. After lamenting the fate of the amend- 
ment to the constitution proposed in 1844, viz 



276 

to provide for electing the judiciary at periods 
separate and distinct from those of the general 
elections of political officers, which was not car- 
ried from the evident carelessness of the voters, 
his excellency urges that it be tried again in 1847, 
little anticipating, we presume, the mighty strides 
his party have taken in the interim, in absolutely 
making a party question of the election of the 
judges and in bringing to bear in the contest, not 
only the influence of the a pure democracy," but 
that of a large class of suitors in the courts , by 
enrolling them in the ranks of that particular po- 
litical party, and thereby settling a certain legal 
question at his Excellency 's favorite legal tribu- 
nal, "the ballot box!" 

It must be well known that we here refer to 
the effort, now in full blast, to overrule or rather 
to reverse a recent decision of the High Court 
upon the law in relation to the forfeiture of bank 
charters, sometimes called the "quo warranto" 
act, but more familiarly known as the "Briscoe 
Bill," and as it may be due to his Excellency, 
in view of certain recent transactions in judge 
making, with special reference to the interests of 
bank debtors, in which he figures conspicuously, 
to give his views of the subject in 1846, we ex- 
tract the following from his message at the be- 
ginning of that year [Sen. Jour. 34.] 

" What is to be the effect of a forfeiture judicially as- 
certained as to the property of the corporation, or as to 
debts due to or from it, is a question properly refera- 
ble TO THE JUDICIARY, AND WITH WHICH THE LEGISLATURE 
AND EXECUTIVE HAVE NO CONCERN." 

This is all very well — that is to say, it sounds 
well ; but, when we corne to consider a very late 
effusion of his Excellency, it seems that it is all 
mere sound ; for there his Excellency, with the 
purest possible demagoguism imaginable, falls in 
with the absurd and outrageous doctrine of the 
political party with which he at present acts, and 
probably will act as long as it continues to give 
him office, that the judiciary must be compelled 



be ballot box" to conform to the views and 
wishes of what he is pleased to term u the co- 
ordinate branches of the government," which 
we presume must mean the said "legislature and 
Executive" which he said in 1346 had "no con- 
cern" with "the effect of a forfeiture judicially 
ascertained." 

We have mentioned that a call has recently, 
[May 1847,) been made upon Gov. Brown to 
become a candidate for judge of the High Court 
by a number of persons attached to one and the 
same political party , with not a single member of 
the bar of either party among them. The object 
of this is evidently to prevent the re-election of 
the present Chief Justice of the High Court on 
account of a recent decision of his, the effect ot 
which is to compel certain bank debtors who had 
expected to escape scot free, by means of the 
act of 1846, to pay their debts to certain banks, 
by putting forth a political partisan, supposed to 
be particularly popular in the judicial district, 
both personally and politically. Until the ap- 
pearance of his excellency's reply to this call, we 
had hoped he would independently wash his hands 
of such an affair, and to this hope we were led. 
most especially, by the part of his message of 
1846 last above quoted. His Excellency has ? 
however, blasted this hope of his best friends by 
showing, in his reply, that, as a demagogue, he 
cannot be surpassed by any member of that ex- 
emplary "Rule" with the most destructive por- 
tion of which, he may now be considered as ful- 
ly allied, heart and hand. The correspondence 
alluded to appeared in "the State Paper," to-wit : 
the leading organ of "the Democratic Rule'' and 
of the "Jackson Clique," by name "the Missis- 
sippian," on the 21st May, 1847. The call up- 
on his Excellency is as follows : 

Hinds County, May 14, 1847. 
His Exceiiency. A. G. Brown : 

Deo Sir— A long public career, which has beer. 
marked by purenes> of purpose and faithfulness in the 

7 



278 

discharge of the important duties devolving upon yon, 
has endeared you to the people. Your term of office- 
expires with the present year; and deeming your ser- 
vices of the highest importance at the piesent crisis in 
our judicial history, the undersigned earnestly solicit 
you to become a candidate for the office of Judge of the 
High Court of Errors and Appeals. The people have 
stood by you in all your trials — they now ask you to stand 
by them . 

Respectfully, your Fellow-citizens, &c. 

To this extraordinary call, his excellency re- 
plies, in a letter of some length, from the "Ex- 
ecutive Chamber," under date of May the 17th, 
1847. After the thanks "for the flattering terms" 
in which allusion is made in the call, to his "past 
(political) services,' 1 usual in these honeyfugling 
communications between public men and political 
caucuses, his excellency says, with great truth : 

"With some experience in public affairs, you will al- 
low me to say r that I should but ill requite the past fa- 
vors of the people by consenting to enter the canvass 
for Judge of the High Court of Errors and Appeals 
I greatly fear that I should not be 'standing by the peo- 
ple' in such a course/ 7 

Some reasons why we pronounce this special- 
ly true we have given already, in adverting to 
"the present crisis in our judicial history;" but 
there need some further explanation, which 
the reader is especially requested to notice, as 
we shall re-state the whole matter as plainly and, 
at the same time, as succinctly, as possible. 

In 1843 an attempt was made to aid, by a 
legislative act, the operation of the rigid rules 
of the common law in relation to the forfeiture 
of charters of corporations, which rules were 
made and applied tothoseinstitutionsin the early 
times, in England, previous to the invention or 
any creation of moneyed corporations, and to en- 
force those common law rules, inapplicable and 
subversive of justice as they are, against the 
banks of the State of Mississippi. The effect 
of this would have been to extinguish every 
debt due to the banks whose charters might be 
forfeited, and to have deprived their creditors, 



279 

holders, stockholders, &c,) of their clai 
But, as the bank debtors could not wait for the 
J movements of the courts in pronouncing 
these forfeitures, a clause was inserted in the 
law by which an injunction was authorized on all 
the proceedings of the banks by suit, &c, when- 
ever any person (bank debtor or otherwise) might 
file an affidavit to the effect that he believed the 
i had violated iis charter. This was the bill 
popularly known as "the Briscoe Bill." It pass- 
ed the House by a very small majority and was 
protested against there by a number of members 
aj an utter enormity, disgraceful to the age and 
the State, and an outrage upon the plainest prin- 
ciples of natural justice. In the Senate, it met 
with the sturdy opposition of Judge Guion, a 
high-toned Mississippian of the old school , a na- 
tive of the State, jealous of its ancient honor, and 
a Senator from Warren county, who, though ia 
the minority of that body in relation to national, 
party politics, had the influence, from the high 
estimation in which he was deservedly held by 
his fellow Senators of all parties, and his talented 
vindication of the principles of natural justice 
and the honor of his native State, to carry through 

Senate, an amendment (commonly called 
<iuion , s amendment) by which it became the 
duty of the court pronouncing the judgment of 
forfeiture, at the same time, to appoint trustees to 

jt the debts due the banks and pay over the 
same to the creditors of those institutions. With 
this just and righteous amendment, then, the 
"original Briscoe Bill" went back to the House. 
which, ashamed of the rank injustice of the 
original, after a few days cool consideration of 
the matter, adopted the amendment ; and, thus 
emended, the bill became the law of the State. 
From this time, as we have before partial! v 
shown, the leaders of "the Democratic Ku 
certain portions of the bank debtors, the "Jack- 
sen clique" the "State paper" and all its seven- 



280 

by-nine followers, together with demagogues gen- 
erally, have waged a war, of extermination against 
the aforesaid j ust and righteous amendment, cfl 
the Guion amendment, which in due course, 
came before the High Court ; when, after the 
most determined resistance on the part of the 
bank debtors, and immense fees paid by them to 
counsel, the amendment was, as it ought to have 
been, sustained. At this period (1845) the 
"clique," the "State paper,'' and the office seek- 
ing demagogues became violent in their denun- 
ciations of the judiciary; the judicial department 
of the government and of the judges themselves — 
the State Paper, especially, declaring that "the 
club of legislation" should be used (of course 
over the heads of the judiciary) to "decapitate 
the banks," &c, &c, and making it, as far as the 
promulgation of the most violent, disorganizing 
and destructive doctrines and means could effect 
that object, a political issue, to be decided at the 
ballot box , whether or not the decision of the 
High Court should stand! 

This question came before the people of Hinds 
county, where "the clique" and "the State pa- 
per 5 ' are both located, and where of course they 
could exercise a direct influence, and, so far as 
the question of whether the law should be altered 
was involved, it was decided that it should not ; 
the only whig candidate for the legislature pre- 
tending to advocate the repeal of the Guion 
amendment having been rewarded for his adhe- 
rence to this clique doctrine, by being coolly 
dropped at the polls by his party, who were in 
the ascendancy in that county. A more serious 
and dangerous question than this was, however, 
made, in the same election, (1845) in the district 
for the election of judge of the Circuit Court, of 
which Hinds is one of the counties, and that 
question was whether a judge should be electee 
whose opinions on the Guion amendment were 
known, and, very unfortunately, a "democratic^ 



candidate, " whose opinions were known,' 5 

known to be unfavorable to the amendment) was 
not only started by "the clique ; or, as it terms 
itself, "the democracy," but a whig also became 
a candidate under the same unfortunate circum- 
stance of "known opinions" on this particular 
question. The result proved the people of the 
district, as well as of the county of Hinds alone, 
sound upon the question, involved as they were 
in bank debts ; for they voted for a third candi- 
date, leaving both of the two first named in a 
most decided and flat minority. This is the more 
creditable to the people of that district, from the 
fact that no man of judgment in such matters 
doubted at the time or now doubts that, if the 
whig candidate whose "opinion was known"' 
had simply kept that opinion to himself and not 
allowed it be used in a judicial canvass, he would 
have been elected over his two competitors by a 
handsome majority ; and when it is recollected 
that he was previously a favorite with his party, 
who were in the ascendancy in the coun 
which he lived, and that the vote for him, even 
there, was a mere bagatelle, no one can avoid be- 
stowing upon the people of that county and dis- 
trict, who were as largely bank-indebted, in pro- 
portion to their means, as any in the State, the 
meed of sustaining the old Mississippi character 
with credit to themselves, honor to the whole 
State, and in a manner which deserves the com- 
mendation of the wise and good every whei 

The public virtue, thus nobly manifested, seems 
to have been gall and worm-wood to "the R 
and "the clique," and their war upen the Right, 
with reference to this question, has ever since 
been that of a band of desperadoes determined to 
exterminate their opponents even at the risk of 
total destruction to themselves. The effect of 
the struggle just alluded to, in Hinds and the 
other counties in the same judicial district, was 
spread all over the State, and the cause of 
z "J 



232 

plain and manifest Right, as against the unjust 
misapplication of arbitrary common law rules, 
was espoused by the non-bank-indebted counties, 
particularly in northern Mississippi, almost with- 
out distinction of party, Indeed, the democratic 
party itself, in many of those counties, required 
pledges against Briscoism from their candidates 
for the legislature. Consequently, it was found 
when the legislature assembled in 1846, that the 
Guion amendment could not be repealed. It was 
then essayed to repeal the whole act, including 
that amendment, so as to leave the much lauded 
common law to operate ; which also failed. [H. J. 
505, and Sen. Jour. 633.] Another bill was then 
got up (called Torrey's Bill) and would have 
shared the fate of its fellows but for a log rolling 
process, but too evident to those who will ex- 
amine, which by connecting it with the appor- 
tionment bill of that year, carried it through, to 
the regret of every real well wisher of the State, 
and against the real sense of the legislature as to 
its own merits. 

This "apportionment bill" was a bone of con- 
tention between the Northern and Southern por- 
tion of the State. In fact, the disagreement arose 
into a very serious affair, threatening the informal 
breaking up of the legislature. The sectional 
interests of North and South Mississippi in re- 
gard to it were believed to be diametrically op- 
posed, and there appeared to be no means of set- 
tling the difficulty. Caucuses, meetings, pro- 
posed compromises, &c, were of no avail until, 
suddenly, both the new Briscoe Bill (Torrey's) 
and the apportionment bill, framed to suit the in- 
terests of North Mississippi, passed, and to the 
astonishment of every one not initiated in the 
mystery . 

By a comparison of the votes on these bills 
previously with that on their final passage, (each 
bill, perhaps, having been a very little altered 
since its previous rejection, but not enough eren 



2^ 

save appearances,") it will be seen that cer- 
tain Northern "democrats" who had, until then, 
opposed Briscoism in all its phases, voted for the 
abomination called Torrey's Bill, while certain 
Southern " democrats" betrayed the undoubted 
interests of the Southern portion of the State by 
voting for the Apportionment Bill framed to suit 
the interests of North Mississippi — a bill sup- 
posed so certainly prejudicial to the Southwestern 
section, that the secession of that portion of the 
State from the rest, on the ground of its being 
most heavily taxed while it is virtually shut out 
from representation in the legislative halls, has 
been seriously entertained and for some time dis- 
cussed by the principal and most influential press 
of that region, [the Natchez Courier.] 

We have not given the votes on these measures 
in their various stages for want of space. Those 
who are disposed to question our statements are 
referred to the Legislative Journals for the year 
1846, and those who, knowing the facts gener- 
ally, wish to designate the men who thus sullied 
the fame of the State on the one hand, and be- 
trayed the interests of their immediate constitu- 
ents on the other, are referred to a statement of 
the votes on the apportionment bill, before and 
after the passage of Torrey's Bill, in "the South- 
ron" of the 4th of March 1846, in which paper 
these votes are placed in juxtaposition. 

This last Briscoe (or Torrey) act may be found 
in the published acts of 1846, p. 118. It provides 
[Sec. 4,] that the Trustees appointed on the judg- 
ment of forfeiture against the banks shall sell the 
assets (lands, "bonds, bills, notes, judgments, 
decrees, and other evidences of debt") of the 
banks to the highest bidder for cash, and allows 
[Sec. 13,j the debtors to redeem their debts so sold 
by paying the purchaser the amount of the pur- 
chase money and 12| percent, per annum thereon. 

Against the passage of this act, no less than 
twelve senators — among the rest, the ex-chan- 



284 

ceilor, Turner, and Messrs. Guion and Miles, as 
distinguished lawyers as any in the State — for- 
mally and solemnly protested. [Sen. Jour. 615. J 
The unconstitutionality urged as a ground for 
protesting is that, by this act, a debtor may 
relieve himself of his whole debt. by paying a 
part=-that it is a virtual release of his debt — and 
it is easy to conceive how it is so. A debtor may 
owe $10,000 and get a friend to buy it for $50, 
or if purchased by any one for that sum, may 
redeem it for $56 25. 

Another ground of unconstitutionality is point- 
ed out in the 10th section, which provides that 
no distribution of the assets of the Planters' and 
Mississippi Railroad Banks shall be made " until 
the whole amount due to this State " on account 
of certain funds, be first paid, "and that the bonds 
and coupons of this State, issued for the benetit 
of said Bank, (i. e. the Planters' Bank) shall, at 
all times, be received in payment of any debt due 
said banks." This, the protestants say, is an 
attempt to repeal the law of the contract, and 
provides that one stockholder shall be paid his 
stock in full before any of the creditors shall re- 
ceive a cent, and then provides that the outstand- 
ing individual liabilities of one of the stockhold- 
ers (the State) shall be received in payment of 
ail debts due the Planters' Bank. The protest 
then proceeds as follows : 

" The point has been so often decided by the higher 
judicial tribunals of the land, that the stockholders are 
entitled to nothing unlii the creditors are first paid, that 
it has long since ceased to be a mooted question. Yet, 
in the face of this firmly established principle — that can- 
not be shaken by legislation — it is now attempted, by this 
section, to provide that, after first paying back to the 
principal stockholder (or partner) the amount of capital 
invested in the speculation, the surplus shall be distri- 
buted among the creditors." 

The law is further denounced as encouraging 
combinations , first, ot creditors or bill holders, 
for purchasing up the debts and attempting to 
cause their payment in specie, and, second, of the 



285 

bank debtors to prevent competition in bidding 
by threats or force, and thus to buy in their own 
debts for a mere song. 

Of course, the McNutt ultras, the " Jackson 
Clique," the "State Paper," and all such of the 
bank debtors in whom interest is stronger than 
any principle except that which governor Brown 
calls "the principle of dollars and cents," inas- 
much as it was found impossible to use "the club 
v f legislation" to release them entirely, went in 
for the next thing to it — viz: releasing bank 
debtors for little or nothing — a mere nominal 
price, fixed by themselves — and every decision 
of the courts having the slightest tendency to 
make the bank-indebted nabobs disgorge their ill 
gotten gains and pay back the loans out of which 
they had purchased their lands and negroes, car- 
riages and horses, and champaigne and burgundy, 
was denounced as savoring of bankism and as 
anti-democratic, with a continuance of all that 
inconsistency and humbug which we have al- 
ready exposed. 

Under the act of 1843, the charters of several 
of the banks were declared forfeited, trustees 
appointed and the collection of the assets com- 
menced, when an attempt was made to reject the 
act under which those banks were wound up, so 
tar as the collection of debts w r as involved, and 
to place the trustees under the provision, prescrib- 
ing the sale of the assets, in an act (the Torry 
bill of 1S46) subsequently enacted! This ques- 
tion coming up before the High Court, in 1S47. 
it was decided, in substance, that the law under 
which the charters of those banks were declar- 
ed forfeited and trustees appointed to collect the 
assets, must prevail ; and how any jurist (except 
Mr. Justice Thacher) could find reasons for de- 
ciding differently, we are at an utter loss to ima- 
, even since "the State paper" published his 
dissenting opinion and suppressed those of the 
majority of the court. 



286 

The longest and more elaborate opinion of the 
two judges who constituted the majority of the 
court which made this decision, was delivered by 
Mr. Chief Justice Sharkey, whose term of office 
is about to expire, and this caused that extreme 
necessity for governor Brown to "stand by the 
people" by becoming a candidate (of course, 
pledged) to run against Judge Sharkey, express- 
ed in the above quoted call upon him, made by 
democrats exclusively. This, also, is the reason 
why we affirmed that his excellency said, with 
great truth, that he would "but illy requite the 
past favors of the people" by consenting to run 
for the office; for certainly it would be extreme- 
ly ungrateful to lead them into further disgracing 
the State and themselves by consenting to run 
for a judicial office on a political party question, 
at the call of political partisans, and for the ex- 
press purpose of reversing, at the ballot box, & 
solemn and most righteous decision of an upright, 
conscientious, learned and most distinguished 
jurist, as well known abroad as at home as an 
honor, alike, to his State and his profession- 

But there are other reasons why his excellen- 
cy ought to have declined the proposed politico- 
judicial honor tendered him ; and, as we are struck 
with the truth of all those given by himself, we 
shall quote them, before giving any of our own. 
Hear him : 

"Another reason and a very sufficient one, 1 think, 
why it would be improper for me to yield to your solici- 
tations in this matter, is, ihat my consent has been given 
to the use of my name in the Fourth Congressional 
District as a candidate for Congress. That is the place 
of my residence, and I consented to serve the District, 
if elected, because a political position suits my tastes, 
inclinations and former habits, and because I hoped to 
be useful as a representative. Other reasons might be 
i'iven for declining the canvass fora judgeship, but these 
you will probably think sufficient. 5 ' 

Now we perfectly agree with his excellency 
that, of all public stations, a judicial one suits 
him least cf any. In the first place, the bench 



287 

is no place for quite such a rapid reasoner and 
offhand sort of man as his excellency. When 
he was in the legislature (in 1838) the way of 
all (Mississippi) flesh seemed to be toward Texas, 
and it seems that "Mr. Brown of Copiah," think- 
ing that property was not carried to that land of 
promise with sufficient facility, was very anxious 
to get a bill passed "to enable guardians to re- 
move the property of their wards to Texas." — 
[House Jour. 1838 pages 49 and 51.] When on 
the Circuit Court bench, he decided, with about 
the same degree of consideration, that a promis- 
sory note payable to bearer could not be assigned 
by delivery but must be endorsed [ Vide case of 
Tillman vs Allies. 5 Smedes & Marshall Rep. p. 
373.1 Again, his excellency is too off-hand a 
man and too fond of allusions (not exactly classi- 
cal) to preserve that serious and sober dignity on 
the bench necessary to obtain and preserve the 
respect of the people for the judiciary, which is 
a sine qua non in rendering that arm of a govern- 
ment worth any thing. As an illustration of this, 
it may be recollected by many that, in answer 
to the query of an aged member of the bar, "did 
1 understand the court to decide so and so?" his 
excellency (then "his honor") replied from the 
bench : "It would look so to a man up a tree." 
In short, as his excellency himself truly says, 
"other reasons" (and a good many of them) 
"might be given" to show that he certainly ought 
not to run for a "judgeship." 

The concluding paragraph of Mr. Brown's re- 
ply to the "democratic" call upon him to stand 
by the people, by becoming a candidate for the 
office of judge of the High Court, in "the present 
crisis of our judicial history," we quote entire, 
giving his excellency the full benefit of his own 
italics. 

LH my sympathies are wilh you. That you may 
succeed in the election of a JucUe who can act in har- 
mony with the co-ordinate departments of the S'a-.e 
Government in carrying out the policy of the people, 



238 

and who will abstain from abrogating the solemn enact- 
ments of the Legislature, except for good and sufficient 
reasons, is the earnest wish of 

Your friend and fellow-citizen, 

A. G. BROWN. 

His sympathies — all — are with political parti- 
sans who seek to put the man who, as governor, 
approved the Torry Bill, on the bench! He 
hopes they may succeed in their project, and 
elect a judge who can lay down the independence 
of the judiciary, a sacrifice at the shrine of party, 
and who "ivill abstain from abrogating the solemn 
enactments of (the Democratic Rule in) the 
legislature" which let men off from paying their 
debts ! He then decides that the reasons influ- 
encing the majority of the High Court in deciding 
as we have above explained were not "good and 
sufficient!" 

Well, coming from the Daniel who decided that 
a promissory note payable to bearer could only be 
assigned by endorsement, and who perhaps might 
feel aggrieved by the overruling of that stupid 
decision of his honor, judge Brown, by the 
High Court, this voice of profound wisdom from 
the "Executive Chamber" is worth just about — 
what it is worth. Little wonder, indeed, that 
it w r as deemed worthy of reading aloud, for the 
edification of the sovereign people -who might 
be in attendance at the recent "democratic con- 
vention" of Hinds County, which itself required 
that its candidates for political office should be 
pledged to "vote against Sharkey." 

The merits of this controversy and the attempts 
of the "Democratic Rule" to subvert the judici- 
ary and bring that "co-ordinate department of 
the State government" to the feet of the other 
departments, or crush it utterly, and thus under- 
mine the constitution, are before the people in 
so clear a light that he who runs may read. The 
"signs of the times" are not to be mistaken, ex- 
cept by the determinedly perverse or the hope- 
lessly, ignorant. It is a result, pregnant with 



280 

,:r, of the "principle of dollars and cents'* 
which, from the first movement of Mr. McNutt 
toward repudiating the Union Bank bonds, which 
he signed and issued, to the discovery of Mr- 
Brown, that economy, in states, as well as in in- 
dividuals, is the greatest and best of all the vir- 
tues,* has been steadily upheld by the "Demo- 
cratic Rule," while the old character of the State, 
not only for plain honesty, but for a chivalrous 
honor and generosity has been laughed to scorn. 
Let those who have blindly followed the clique 
look well to their liberties before they move a 
step farther in this war upon the judiciary. The 
most they can gain by it is the addition of a few- 
bank debtors to their party — the probable loss, in 
the character, credit and fame of the State, and 
in both political and social morality, is incalcu- 
lable. The cover under which it is sought to do 
this deed — viz: the imperative necessity of "put- 
ting down the banks" is too thin and sleazy 
even to be a subject of ridicule. The banks are 
already put down; and, even if they w r ere not, 
the question whether they should live or die, 
though important, sinks into insignificance in 
comparison with that of whether a political party, 
to sustain itself by the votes of bank debtors, 
shall undermine and pull down that real bulwark 
of the liberties of the freeman, the judiciary. 



chapter xxir. 

The events' of the present administration 
Mr. Brown are too recent to allow us to notice 
all of them with the particularity with which we 

* Hii excellency seems, very naively, to express the views of 

••Me Rule" in his message [Sen. Jour, ot 1346, p. 13,] when he 

"The legislature hag. doubiless imbibed the prevailing 

sentiment of the age. that economy is the greatest and best 

virtue with States, as weli is individuals." 

From this it follows that faith, honor, justice, truth. &c. &c, 
are mere secondary virtues. I fthi3 is not advocating that which 
in another place, he calls "the principle of dollars" and cents. ' 
we do not know what would he ; hut, as his excellency not unfre- 
quently "goes otf halt cocked," in his messages, speeches, let- 
/suppose this absurdity was not intentional 



290 

have recorded and commented upon those of pre - 
vious years. In regard to many of them there 
may be disputes as to facts not yet settled and 
become historical. For this and the other "good 
and sufficient reasons' 7 that we find we are ex- 
tending our humble "Notes" into too large a 
work ? no allusion will be made to many of the. 
occurrences of 1846 and 1847. The principal 
features of that period — the passage of "the 
Torry bill" and the effect of mingling political 
and judicial questions at "the ballot box," as ex- 
hibited in the present attempt to reverse a legal 
decision by means of the votes of the people of 
one of the three judicial districts of the State, 
have been treated of at some length because of 
their importance and as fearful results of the 
policy of "the Democratic Rule." If the people 
of the whole State would be convinced whether 
they have now gone far enough or ought to go 
farther under such guidance, let them watch 
closely the canvass for judge of the High Court 
now in full blast. We promise them it will be 
entirely convincing to all who observe it closely 
and with a view to improve. 

We have only to refer briefly to one or two 
other events of the last two years and conclude 
our labors. 

We are sorry that Mr. Brown has imposed 
upon us, by his singular reply to the equally sin- 
gular call upon him to be a candidate for judge, 
the necessity of criticising his acts as a public 
man so severely, because, from his firmness on 
the subject of the Planters' Bank bonds, at the 
risk of much of his popularity with the party 
with which he is identified, to wit : the self- 
styled ''Mississippi Democracy," we had hoped 
for better things of him, notwithstanding his pe- 
culiar unfitness for a judicial station. To do 
him justice, we will state that upwards of seven 
pages of his principal message in 1846 are devo- 
ted to advocating the payment of the Planters' 



iBank bonds, which measure is urged with b 
ooility and energy — with so much of the latter, 
in fact, that the "radical" repudiators and the 
political trimmers among the pretended advocates 
of paying those bonds, joined together to under- 
mine his excellency's popularity by means of it, 
and, to a considerable extent, succeeded in s-.» 
doing. No step taken by Mr. Brown since, if 
of any importance, has escaped censure ; even 
his acts in regard to the formation of the regi- 
ments of volunteers for the Mexican war, ui 
circumstances very trying to a party politician, 
having been seized upon to ruin his popularity. 
As to the effect of his attempt to make the peo- 
ple honest by hakes — that is, to agree to pay on- 
set of bonds and leave the other "repudiated" — 
it had so little effect that the influence of 
ultra or McNott faction was so far felt in the 
committee of Ways and Means that it actually 
recommended a large reduction of the taxes in 
the very face of the message ! This was another 
illustration of the accursed effects of the first 
repudiating movement and the pernicious doc- 
trines in favor of il the principle of dollars 
cents" urged in the election of Mr. Tucker and 
the two elections of governor Brown himself, 
and thus is it that the departure from true prin- 
ciples by the leaders of a political party is ever 
carried out into extremes by the deceived and 
misled people, In other words, and to conform 
more closely to his excellency's own mode of ex- 
pression, thus is it that the sentiment that economy 
\3 the greatest and best of all the virtues, is ever 
manifested by the masses when " incorrectly 
vised." 

So went the Planters' Bank bond question 
1846 — "the democratic party of Mississippi," 
as represented by its leaders in the legislature, 
in the plentitude of its " unterrified" fearless- 
ness, truckling and cringing to, and skulking 
from A. G. McN utt and his small but pov 



292 

ful band of associates, commonly called the u Jack- 
son clique," who, through " the State Paper," 
commonly called' 1 the Mississippian," control 
and direct that party as so many slaves and vas- 
sals chained to their car. True, they did not 
vote for Mr. McNutt for United States Senator - 
On the other hand, they made another pledge 
of their sincerity in advocating the payment of 
the Planters' Bank bonds, (to prove how con- 
scientious they were in repudiating the Union 
Bank bonds) by electing general H. S. Foote, 
who had advocated the payment of the Planters* 
Bank bonds, when the question occurred, during 
the canvass of the State by himself and ex-gov- 
ernor McNutt in 1845: but this must now be 
regarded as the effect of the personal animosity 
to Mr. McNutt of the party leaders in the leg- 
islature, since, when the question to meet the 
payment of the Planters' bonds came up fairly 
and squarely before them they, in a manner most 
disgraceful to the State, not only dodged it, but, 
in the very teeth of the strenuous exertions of 
governor Brown to sustain the character repeat- 
edly insisted upon for the State by both gover- 
nor Tucker's and his own administrations, vir- 
tually recommended, through the committee of 
Ways and Means, that those bonds should never 
be paid at all ! 

The opposition of this Tucker and Brown fac- 
tion to Mr. McNutt, then, is one of the most 
despicable farces ever played off by a set of truck- 
ling partisans before an intelligent community. 
Instead of being disgusted, as they pretended, by 
the "radical repudiation" of which Mr. McNutt 
is the head and front, his "democratic" enemies, 
on every occasion offered them for really carry- 
ing out their avowed doctrines, have shown 
their opposition to be merely in name, and to be 
founded upon a mere jealousy of the eminence 
acquired by Mr. McNutt and his close adherents, 
resulting, as that eminence did, from the bold 



rines which ought to, ana i 
mately will, damn any community which has 
the hardihood to declare and practice upon them. 
Their whole action on the Planters' Bank b( 
in 1S46, as well as upon the Briscoe bill, (as re- 
vamped under the name of Torrey's bill,) shows 
that they were destitute of the moral courage to 
disregard the consequences to themselves of 
doing rightly for and toward the people they pre- 
tended to serve. In fact, they showed that they 
were inferior in courage to the McNutt faction 
which, daring to assume the most abominable 
and outrageous position before the world, at leas: 
doggedly maintained it. The Tucker and Bro w 
taction, on the other hand, though they blus- 
tered as loudly for the abstract (so fai 

e Planters' Bank bonds and Briscoe biJ: 
questions were concerned) as their opponents 
for the radically wrong (in every question in which 
f he payment of debts was involved,) unlike the 
latter, were afraid to carry out their pretended 

: iples whenever opportunities were present- 
ed for actually doing rightly. Taxation was the 

i scare-crow, and instead of simply letting 
the subject alone, and silently allowing the funds 
of the State to accumulate gradually, (the u do- 

:ic debt" being nearly paid off) so that, in 
t : me, it might be applied to the liquidation of the 
interest on those bonds of which they prete. 

(knowledge the validity, they attempte 

ler to the taste for the M principle of d^ 
and cents*' they had taught the " dear people" 

actually truckled to the fiat of the " Ja< 
clique" published, in advance, in 1845, in 

:e paper, and proposed to reduce the taxes ! 
Now, in justice to governor Brown, too many 

• hose acts, it cannot be denied, have the 
pert of unredeemed partisanship, it shou! 
remembered that he boldly stood forth and re- 
commended an increase of taxes for the purpose 
;spensable. with an honest people) of paj 



294 

a just and acknowledged debt. As to the leaders 
in the legislature, of that branch of the party of 
which he was the ostensible head, who so mean- 
ly deserted him, they merely proved that their 
opposition in principle to Mr. McNutt and the 
clique was an empty pretence^ and, with this 
character of despicable duplicity w r ill posterity 
stamp their conduct,, unless they should without 
allowing another session of the legislature to 
pass by r meet the question and declare their de- 
termination to pay the Planters' Bank bonds by 
acts instead of words — a thing we are warranted 
in predicting they will not do so long as mere 
words will serve their purpose of finding fault 
with the McNutt faction and thereby keeping 
themselves in office. 

From this view of the subject — and it is the 
only one warranted by the facts of the case — it 
is evident the whole "Rule," in both branches, 
is unsound to the core on the subject of the State 
debts — that it is unfaithful to the true welfare of 
the State, regardless of her character and credit, 
selfish, time serving and utterly unpatriotic Aj 
to the masses who follow such rulers, the fault 
is not theirs, but that of those who, under the 
humble name of servants of the people, rule 
those " enlightened and intelligent" sovereigns 
with the tyranny of the veriest despot, and, too 
timid to tell the people the plain truth, pander to 
their pockets, and thus aid in their degradation 
and infamy. The will of " the people," collec- 
tively, is just what certain individuals^ of more 
shrewdness, intelligence and force. of character 
than the great mass of their fellow beings, choose 
to make it. A few men are endowed by the 
creator with faculties to lead, control and direct 
others, and with a propensity to exert those 
faculties. If they direct the masses in the right 
way, the masses pursue the right ; but if they 
aouse their power, the masses go astray. It is 
-xcse nature! lead society to prove 



theniseives the true friends of the people and to 
vindicate the patriotism to which they pretend, 
by recurring to undeniable principles of morality, 
at the risk of temporary popularity, and leadihe 
masses over whom circumstances, or the Power 
above circumstances, have given them suprema- 
cy, in the plain road of Right, Justieeand Honor. 
Let them then shake off the selfish treachery of 
the courtier, and act as republican men — the de- 
scendants of the real men of '76 — should act* 
He whose life is passed in currying the favor of 
a monarch at the expense of the true welfare of 
a nation, for his own, selfish ends, and he who 
courts the sovereign populace in a republic for 
the same object, are emphatically < i in ihe same 
line of business." What Mississippi requires in 
the present lamentable crisis, is the truest and 
most unalloyed patriotism — the old-fashioned 
patriotism which is willing to sacrifice self for 
the good of the people, and, to this end, men, 
who dare tell their fellow- citizens of their faults. 
and office holders who dare enforce the plain, 
^raight forward, abstract Right. 

It matters not from which party in national 
politics such men come, so that their services are 
brought into requisition, and those of mere parti- 
sans and mere office seekers dispensed with. 
Such men are wanted — wanted in all the offices, 
Executive, Legislative and Judicial — and they 
must be called forth and placed in office, ere Mis- 
sissippi can be what she ought to be, or what she 
has been in her better and more prosperous days. 
Never did a State more require the active in- 
fluence of her u wisest and best" than Missis- 
sippi does now. Let them throw aside their 
apathy — fling aside their stale excuse that they 
in the minority of a political party or fac- 
and therefore powerless, and come to the 
rescue. Let ail those who have looked upon the 
Joings of the last nine years in Mississippi as 
-fiects of a mere political contest, cast the 



296 

scales from their eyes and behold the plain and 
startling fact that the contest waging, under po- 
litical party names, is no longer one of mere 
" honest differences of opinion," but a conflict 
between moral right and wrong, as the plainest 
man understands right and wrong, involving not 
only the simple question whether debts shall be 
paid or not, but whether, in order to evade the 
payment of debts, by both the State and individu- 
als, systems shall not be thrown down, constitu- 
tions violated and the judiciary undermined — 
whether a civilized people, in a christian coun- 
try, shall not at will declare themselves free 
from debt at the ballot box, and there provide for 
the making of statutes, which set the laws of 
God and of Nature at defiance, and for judges 
who will pledge themselves to carry such laws 
into effect, in consideration of being placed on the 
bench by interested debtors. Let every man 
look at these things as they are, and judge of 
them, not under the dictation of some hireling, 
party press, but as that still, small monitor of 
God within, his own conscience, shall direct him. 
If he will do this, he will see that the statute 
book requires purging — not of impolitic laws sim- 
ply, but of moral enormities — that the judiciary. 
as the most powerful conservator of morality 
known to our social system, is, at this moment, 
in special need of being upheld and its untram- 
meled independence preserved at all risks — that 
the press stands in especial need of being taught 
that politics form no excuse for warring against 
the plainest precepts of the law of God — aye, 
and it may be that it is absolutely necessary that 
the Pulpit, thrown off its guard by the cry of 
politics — politics 1 ' be warned that, while it 
stands idly by, or pursues some trifling sins with 
denunciation, some good christians are using that 
same cry of " politics," to evade the payment of 
debts and in defiance of the scriptural command 
which makes no exceptions in favor of either 



297 

Stale debts or bank debts, and was made without 
the slightest reference to " politics." 

To every unprejudiced mind which contem- 
plates the present condition of Mississippi, and 
is cognizant of her political history for the last 
nine years, it must be evident that her govern- 
ment has done nothing for her. Without any 
discernible improvement in any of the public 
interests, the honor of the State, her credit, and 
the reputation, at home and abroad, of both her- 
self and her people have been sacrificed at the 
shrine of party politics. The formal repudia- 
tion of a part of the State debt, is but an in- 
stance of stupid adherence to u economy' J of the 
" penny wise and pound foolish" description — an 
illustration of a policy not less foolish than dis- 
graceful. The actual loss which has accrued to 
the State from it already is immense, but is only 
a small part of that which will accrue should 
that policy be persisted in. The bad same 
brought upon the State by her rulers has, doubt- 
less, prevented many a citizen from mending his 
broken fortunes, and many another from taking 
advantage of that tide in his affairs, which would 
have led to fortune — it has cramped the energies 
of the planter, and circumscribed the credit of 
the merchant ; for demagogues have stamped 
"Repudiator" on the brow of both, and, through 
them, the curse has been felt by all avocations. 
The same cause has prevented immigration to 
the State, and acres upon acres of wilderness 
which might now have blossomed as the rose, 
but for that deathly mark set upon the fair fore- 
head of the young State, by the politicians of 
the Tucker administration, lies in unprofitable 
wilderness yet. Thousands who would have 
: ecome Mississippians, and whose means would 
have added immensely to the aggregate wealth 
of the State, have been deterred from so doing, by 
the fear of incurring the name of "Repudiator,'' 
or have been frightened by the exaggerated state- 



298 

ments of the immense taxes to which they might 
be subjected if the State should pay her debts, 
made by those same heartless politicians, who, 
for the benefit of enjoying a "little brief authori- 
ty," have betrayed the people to whom, by their 
influence, properly and honestly exerted, they 
might have preserved their old and glorious 
name and fame. 

It is well known that those who lend money 
on State securities are not in want of the princi- 
pal of their outlay — that the best loans are con- 
sidered, by bona fide takers, to be those which 
have the longest time to run — that there could, 
therefore, have been no difficulty in obtaining as 
much time upon the debt of the State as could be 
desired — provided, only, that unmistakable as- 
surances of the intention to pay the debt ulti- 
mately had been given, and provision to pay the 
interest promptly made. What kind of policy 
then was it, to say nothing of right and justice, 
to sink the credit of a State with an annual ex- 
port trade of $15,000,000, for the sake of a pal- 
try $5,000,000, the payment of which could 
have been postponed by contract, and without 
detriment to the character and credit of either 
the State or her citizens, for any time which 
might be necessary or desirable, up to a century ? 
It is not too much to say that more than $5,000,- 
000 have been already lost to the State and her 
citizens, by the "economy" of those near-sight- 
ed and shallow-witted politicians who did the 
damning deed of 1842. 

One great misfortune in regard to this subject 
is that many who look upon ultimate repudiation 
as impossible, and upon the arguments against 
"the right to encumber posterity with debt" &c, 
as the mere shuffling off of the interest which 
the present generation ought to pay, upon pos- 
terity, rest contented under the belief that "all 
these things will come right, of themselves, by 
and by," and forget the immense disadvantage 



State is to labor under, and the heavy losses 

she is to suffer during the interim — that every 
day she remains under the stigma of Repudiation 
is indubitably a positive loss to her ; for her 
credit is kept down, her enterprise is held in 
check, and her advancement in population and 
wealth is retarded. While they thus indulge in 
day dreams of "things righting themselves," de- 
signing or narrow-minded politicians who incul- 
cate the doctrine that "Economy" (and a stupid 
and blind economy at that) stands at the head of all 
the virtues, are left, uninterruptedly, to continue 
to mislead the masses by narrow-minded appeals 
to their pockets against the payment of a debt 
which, whether wisely or foolishly contracted, or 
whether with or without the express sanction of 
the constitution, all men of sound and extended 
; views see plainly, it would not only be more 
worthy of the ancient fame of the State, but ac- 
tually the best and wisest economy to acknowledge 
in full, and commence paying off at once. Indeed 
it may well be questioned whether the removal 
of the stigma of Repudiation would not be worth 
to the State and her citizens, in actual dollars 
and cents, three times the amount of the whole 
debt in less than five years. 

As to other measures of u the Rule," adverted 
: previous chapters, such as "Briscoe bills'' 
and other relief or stay laws, &:c., we assert that 
they have done the State and the people no good 
whatever. On the contrary, they have done the 
most positive harm to all classes of the commu- 
nity. They have destroyed the confidence of 
man in man to an extent, not only utterly des- 
tructive to her fame, but pecuniarily detrimental 
to both the State and her people, and which it 
will take years of better government to rectify. 

The idea that the course pursued by "the De- 
mocratic Rule" has a tendency "to break down. 
the credit system," is utterly senseless. The 
Remedy is worse than the Disease. The facili- 



300 

ties afforded for getting rid of pecuniary obliga- 
tions by law, has induced a reckless willingness 
to accept credit. The course pursued by the 
government has had, and could have, no such ef- 
fect as discouraging the desire to obtain credit, to 
check which desire is the only legitimate mode 
of checking the system itself. Neither has that 
course, in the least degree discouraged the "spirit 
of speculation." There is now as ardent a de- 
sire for credit among the people as ever, and as 
strong a disposition to speculate. A natural re- 
sult of the policy of the State is a prevailing dis- 
position where credit is obtained at all, to take 
an extension of it, beyond the time contracted for, 
when the means that ought to liquidate existing 
debts can be employed in speculation. This 
tendency of things has been made evident by the 
effects of a single year of high prices for cotton. 
"More negroes to make more cotton," is as much 
the maxim in 1847 as it was in 1837, and we 
have heard the failure and ruin of a few mer- 
chants, in consequence of this spirit of specula- 
tion among their customers, treated as "a mere 
circumstance" in comparison with the immense 
increase of wealth to be derived to the State 
from making "more cotton !" 

To say that peculiar censure should be bes- 
towed upon the people of Mississippi for such 
infirmities of human nature, would be narrow- 
minded and unjust. Human nature is one and 
the same every where, under the same circum- 
stances. These things are the effects of bad 
government. The idea of breaking up or cur- 
tailing a too extensive credit system, by viola- 
ting and contemning the sacredness of contracts 
by Legislative Enactments and Resolutions, 
and extending the period of collecting debts by 
law, to a length which enables a debtor to set a 
creditor at defiance, and renders the latter actu- 
ally afraid to sue for a just claim, is ridiculous. 
It may operate as a warning to creditors, but 



actuai encouragement to those who wash ic 
get into debt to do so by the fairest, but most de- 
ceptive promises and representations. Such ?. 
state of affairs ever affords a harvest to acute 
unprincipled speculators, at the expense of fhe 
toiling and plodding million. The only legiti- 
mate mode of curbing a too extensive credit 
system and of checking an inflated spirit of specu- 
lation, is to render the enforcement of the obli- 
gation of contracts easy, certain and prompt. 
When men see that they can gain nothing more 
than the actual time contracted for by credit, and 
have nothing to hope for from relief and stay 
laws, while the action of their government, and 
the public opinion engendered thereby, is ail in 
favor of preserving contracts inviolate— that they, 
therefore, will be bound to pay every debt they 
contract, to the last cent, and instantly, whene- 
ver the aid of the law is invoked — they will then, 
and only then, as a general rule, be careful how 
they contract debts and voluntarily abstain from 
going beyond their means. The credit they then 
obtain will be beneficial, and not detrimental to 
either their morals or their pecuniary interests, and 
the system of trade will be healthy, temperate, 
and really advantageous to all concerned in it. 

Disregarding this common-sense view of the 
subject, founded as it is- on every day's expe- 
rience, the Solons of the Democratic Rule m 
Mississippi have taken a course directly the re- 
verse. We have shown that from the "McNutt 
law" of 1837, compelling the joining of the va- 
rious parties on notes and bills in the same suit, 
down to the consummation of that unsurpassable 
innovation upon the science of government, "Bris- 
coism," the main object of those men would seem 
to have been the loosening of all the ligatures 
which bound individuals or the State to their 
pecuniary engagements. Their measures have 
been marked by an unprecedented contempt of 
the first principles of the natural and moral law 
2 E 



602 

upon which) government, to be worth any thing. 
must be founded. They have, as it were, tram- 
pled beneath their feet and spat upon contracts, 
given full play and immunity to a total disregard 
and contempt for pecuniary obligations, and. in 
their mad march to some goal which they cannot 
tnemselves define, but which, it would appear to 
every reflecting and unprejudiced mind, must lie 
beyond the verge of disgrace and ruin to the State 
and the people, are, at last, as we have shown, 
attempting to lay the axe to the root of the inde- 
pendence of that department of the government 
which is the best safeguard to the cause of mor- 
ality and of constitutional liberty itself — the judi- 
ciary- 
No departure from moral principle, however 
slight, by those who hold the reins of Govern- 
ment, can possibly be safe. We have seen that 
the same excuses offered for Repudiating a cer- 
tain part of the debt of the State, opened the 
door to applying them to the purpose of repudia- 
ting the rest, and that the evii example has ever) 
extended its influence to the debts of individuals' 
Very few, we imagine, who looked callously 
and calmly on, when the repudiation of bank 
debts received the first sanction of the govern- 
ment, deemed that the comparatively insignifi- 
cant question whether certain individuals should 
or should not pay certain of their private debts 
would grow into a political party engine, influ- 
encing the State elections — a mighty lever, threat- 
ening seriously, as at present, to be powerful 
enough to upturn from its solid base, one of the 
three departments of the Government, and actu- 
ally applied, with high hopes of success, to that 
object ! And yet, here are all these evils full 
upon us ! 

If the people — the real people — would but 
pause and think for themselves — if they w r ould 
calmly consider all these things at their firesides — 
if they would closely regard every professed lea- 



303 

itics who advises them that " economy '■ 

\t greatest and best of all the virtues, and ex- 

ae thoroughly into the motives and objects of 

b men — satisfy themselves who among them 

is seeking for, or to retain, office — which of them 

is deeply indebted individually to such classes of 

creditors as it is proposed to exclude from the 

collection of their debts, and make the necessary 

allowance for the usual and often deceptive bias 

of self interest — these things would be speedily 

righted. Will the people do it ? 

As to those who wilfully lead the masses 
astray, it is of course, unnecessary to say a word. 
They have turned to their idols, not from want 
of knowledge, and cannot be convinced, because 
they will not. They have sinned against light. 
Upon those who think themselves qualified to 
rule, but who, in fact, have no qualifications for 
rulers — who have neither studied nor reflected 
upon the first principles of government — and yet 
put themselves forward as public men, it would 
be equally useless to waste words. "Seest thou 
a man wise in his own conceit, there is more 
hope of a fool than of him." 

We have said before that the present emer- 
gency calls for the services of the " Wisest and 
Best" of the State. It remains to be seer; 
whether the dominant party will take the neces- 
sary reform into their own hands, and put for- 
ward such men as the crisis demands, or, hug- 
ging mere party, will continue to keep their wi- 
sest and best in the shade as they have done, be- 
cause they may be bond payers or anti-Briscoe 
men. It is also among the events of the future 
whether the minority party will still fold their 
hands in the hope that "things will ultimately 
right themselves," and, in the meanwhile, so far 
as they are concerned, tacitly allow the State to 
fcjffer in character and credit, day by day and 
nour oy hour, and thus retard the advent of that 
regeneration, which, sooner or later, in the natur- 



■ 

al course of tilings, nils* arrive , to vindicate the 
eternal and immutable principles of Right and 
Justice; and thus leave it to their opponen: 
when their present hobbies are worn out, to torn 
about and carry off the glory of having redec 
ed the State from the obloquy they have then- 
selves brought upon her. 

Having done, as we humbly conceive, at least 
a fair proportion of what could be reasonably re- 
quired of any single citizen of Mississippi, in 
searching for the causes of the evil days which 
have come upon us, and, in this compilation, 
laying them before our fellows, we here claim ll 
right to rest from our labors. 

THE END. 



